“Body Talk Pt. 1″ has only 8 songs, but after you listen to it you feel like not more are needed. Opening track ‘Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do’ is dark electro, followed by four pop themes, the electrifying ‘Fembot’, ‘Dancing On My Own’, ‘Cry When You Get Older’ and ‘Dancehall Queen’. The next song is definitly the most interesting, a collaboration with Röyksopp that goes by the name of ‘None Of Dem’ where Robyn sings over addictive dance beats “none of them get my sex, none of them move my intelect… none of these drugs get me high… none of this beats ever break the law…” and complains about boys. ‘Hang With Me’ is the only non-exciting track in this release, but the soothing, almost lullaby-like ‘Jag Vet En Dejlig Rosa’ closes the album in perfection.

“Body Talk Pt. 1″ definitly confirms Robyn as a secure artist of pop music, if that was even needed anymore. Thumbs up!

Listen “None Of Dem” bellow

None Of DembyMynameisMiguelMartins

“Queen Isabella (The She-Wolf Of France)” is an amazing song that could fit perfectly in the album “The Bachelor”. Harpsichords, harsh beats, screams, strings, everything Patrick got us used to is here gathered on a beautiful instrumental for disturbing lyrics about betrayal and disloyalty ‘It was late last summer, I found out that you went to, one of those places, the men go to mate’ Mr. Wolf sings ‘What the fuck was I thinking, my heart’s still sinking, down to my stomach, down to my feet, she were my she-wolf’

To finalize, a beautiful acoustic mix of “Damaris” at St. George’s Church, reminding us how magnificent Patrick Wolf’s live performances are, whether acoustic or electrified to the maximum…

Jonathan Chan, the mind behind Just The Architect, is one of those people that always leave us mesmerizes by anything he touches!

Wandering through his own magical world, Just The Architect present us six new songs on the edge of perfection. Title track is violent and chaotic, a love tragedy, a fantasy, a dream – all this combining a pop sensibility to marvellous string arrangements and beautiful lyrics…

“Little Tin Soldiers” could be Just The Architect’s major approach to a gothic lullaby, “The Trade” reminds his first demos. A stunning duet with Rachel Kenedy on “Concoction” brings strings and backing vocals making way to a dazzling female voice. “Lost Along The Way” is pop music via Patrick Wolf and Owen Pallet.

The best moment of this EP is definitely “In Motion”… a dark, melancholic, repetitive melody swirls inside our minds like some kind of spell, it’s impossible not to stay put and listen closely to all that’s happening inside just one song. When it’s over you just wish it would never end…

I’ve written about Just The Architect before and he is definitely someone you will want to follow, he might never become world wide famous… but those who know him, are surely quite lucky!

Download “Theo The Weak” EP HERE

Jeffree Star is one of those artists you would never imagine recording a good album. To be honest, I can’t really say if it’s true or not… Jeffree’s debut album ‘Beauty Killer’ isn’t perfect but it isn’t bad, I’d say it’s worth a listen!
Opening with the line “I’m gonna break your heart and get away with murder” we can see where we are being taken to, a world of love and hate, let’s call it emo. Jeffree Star tackles with extremely sugared pop and emo-rock all over the album ‘Beauty Killer’. Songs like “Get Away With Murder”, “Prisoner” or “Love Rhymes With Fuck You” could perfectly fit on a Panic at The Disco or Cobra Starship’s album… on the other hand there’s the simple pop based on electro music of songs like “Electric Sugar Pop”, “Lollipop Luxury” and “Get Physical”.
If we look at ‘Beauty Killer’ and to everything Jeffree Star, the self proclaimed Queen Of The Internet, ever done, it’s obvious that all makes sense. Whether we like it or not, Jeffree Star became indeed a star in the last few years and by his own merit! Jeffree’s world is all about fame, eyelash curlers, fashion, liposuction, lollipops and other candies… millions call him futile, millions love him. I’m only sure of one thing, we can’t judge a book by its cover, and ‘Beauty Killer’ is not my favorite album of the last months but I’ve been listening some songs all week and it does feel nice to catch a chorus and sing it everywhere.

Listen “Louis Vuitton Body Bag” featuring Matt Skiba below

‘Blacklist’ seems like the connection between the more “electro-popish” debut album ‘Love’ and the more aggressive ‘Zero Life Night Vision’. The huge amount of BPM is still there, the harsh vocals by Khima France are still there, the aggressiveness is still dominant, but there’s a somehow mainstream vibe all around the album.
Songs like “Blacklist”, “11:38” or “Human Piles” are direct and bring to mind the hardness of “Zero Life Night Vision”, but all the others can be described as a more professional and worked on version of Kap Bambino’s music, with special attention to the singles “Dead Lazers” and “Red Sign” with brilliant electronic work.
There is also something extremely odd on this new Kap Bambino’s world, “Rezo Zero”, “Bluescreen” and “Plague” bring a whole new magic to Kap Bambino’s music. These songs have a much more slow rhythm and are almost like electro-ballads, quite amazing ones in fact.
‘Blacklist’ is the most accessible and probably the best album Kap Bambino made until this day and it’s an open door to a whole new bunch of fans…

CocoRosie’s new EP brings some fresh air into their discography.
Starting with the shiny pop song “Happy Eyez”, full of childish love, organs, toys, beats and light, the whole EP seems to get away from the dark ethereal places where they’ve been in ‘The Adventures Of Ghosthorse & Stillborn’. “Milkman” shows us a splendorous Sierra singing with a piano, a quiet song, really Antony Hegarty like. “Joseph City” seems almost a mixture of sadness, drama, happiness and irony, and sounds like a prophecy, special highlight to the brilliant vocals the both sisters do on this song. “Spirit Lake” is the most connected to what they’ve done in a recent past (reminds me a lot of “Rainbowarriors” and at the same time “God Has A Voice, She Speaks Through Me”), but it can be considered a compilation of all CocoRosie’s work.
I can’t say that ‘Coconuts, Plenty Of Junkfood’ is a brilliant release by CocoRosie because it seems a bit incomplete. But it’s a brilliant way to show everyone who enjoys Bianca and Sierra’s work, what they have been doing lately and enlighten us a bit about their new album, yet to be released.

Jacob Downs is still a young boy, perhaps too young to be taken serious at the beginning. This wrong idea fades away as soon as you listen to his music! Despite the tender age, Jake is a wonderful musician who can play a considerable variety of instruments and possesses a limpid sweet voice.
On ‘Plague’ EP, his first release, Jake does lead vocals, viola, double bass, piano and baritone ukulele all along six beautiful songs written by an elder soul inside him. ‘Plague’ is full of sadness and pain but is enlightened from time to time with happiness.
Opening with “Blackbird”, a baroque song where Jake’s voice has a brilliant performance alongside with the piano. To notice his sister Sophie Down’s exciting vocal collaboration on the end of the song; “Loyalty” is the centerpiece, a beautiful ukulele melody wraps the profoundest lyrics on the EP “Love, I don’t know a thing about love, cut the contentment and forget all the lust, but see I’m just a cold-hearted murderer, love came to me and I couldn’t help but hurt her”; the title track “Plague” has quite a medieval beginning and flows perfectly into a furious protest! It’s probably one of the most interesting songs Jake will ever write… “The Orchard” shows the first moments of joy and it’s a happy love song “I’ll lie here on the heavy rain just to be alone with you” among piano and brilliant strings; “Ships” follows the feeling in the previous song but in a more contained way. To close ‘Plague’, Jake chose a “Lullaby” he’s singing to himself and about himself, probably one of the most straight to point and personal lyrics in the whole EP, sung with a soothing melody…
After ‘Plague’ EP we surely will never look to another young artist the same way, Jake Downs is definitely a hope for music nowadays and the future seems to be promising for him! I hope to listen a full length by this boy in a few years time…

Jake was kind enough to offer a live version of “The Orchard”, recorded at Rachel Kenedy’s house, for free download.
Download it HERE
Also if you want to see Jake Down’s doing a cover of Patrick Wolf’s “The Sun Is Often Out” click HERE

‘The Bachelor’ is out! Patrick Wolf’s fourth album came out 1st of June and it couldn’t be more surprising.
The intro “Kriegspiel” opens our ears (and our mind) for a journey to somewhere new; “Hard Times” (the second single to be taken from the album) has guitar and violin all throughout the song, pushing us to sing the addictive chorus; “Oblivion” brings us the first vocal appearance of the ‘voice of conscience’ Tilda Swinton; “The Bachelor” features Eliza Carthy on an astonishing duet about love and death (“All I want is someone who will feed them when I’m gone, cause I know that I’m not gonna marry in the fall and I’m not gonna marry in the spring, I will never marry, no one will wear my silver ring”). This song has a few reminiscences to gypsy music and it’s definitely one of the best and stronger songs Patrick ever wrote! “Damaris” is haunting and sad, hugely orchestrated and electronic at the same time; “Thickets” is a folky song with great instrumentation and fabulous backing vocals, Tilda Swinton also appears; “Count Of Casualty” (the final version of the demo “Wargames” Patrick had on his myspace page) mixtures minimal but aggressive electro with a wonderful choir and strings, the lyrics are almost cliché (“This war without an end, what peace do you defend, this war without an end, what fear do you depend”) but to pertinent to ruin the song; “Who Will?” begins almost religiously (there’s some information that tells it’s a song about his aunt who was a nun) and then Matthew Herbert’s production makes it rise to another level, think Björk in ‘Homogenic’ updated version; “Vulture” is the (almost) mythical collaboration with Alec Empire and that is noticed on the entire song, industrial electro, hard beats, looped vocals, etc, like Atari Teenage Riot dissenter loves; “Blackdown” starts as a calm piano based song, almost whispered in some bits, but when you least expect it turns into danceable Celtic music; “The Sun Is Often Out” is a song about a Patrick’s friend who died, and it’s almost impossible not to cry with the way he exorcises that feeling and how strings surround his suffering vocals, it’s an extremely beautiful and sentimental song; Tilda Swinton reappears in “Theseus”, a song that rises from the beginning to the end with so many details you can’t notice them all; “Battle” is furious, full of rage. Here we find Patrick screaming like never before and, once again, Alec Empire’s rebel touch is evident; the closure of the album is made with “The Messenger” . It follows the same influences as in “Who Will?” and it’s as beautiful; it’s a song about travelling, seeing things and keeping memories…
Patrick Wolf is a human chameleon, on ‘Lycanthropy’ he was a revolted teen, ‘Wind In The Wires’ brought us the lone wolf living in the woods, all during ‘Magic Position’ he surrenders to beautiful chamber pop and with ‘The Bachelor’ he reaches the point of no return, Patrick is now what a true artist ought to be: his lyrics are beautiful poetry, his music is extremely well written, he’s inventive and most of all, he is original! If last century had Björk and David Bowie as its most original and interesting musical characters, this century surely has Patrick Wolf!
The videos for the two singles are bellow, “Vulture” is inspired by some strange, dangerous and exciting experiences Patrick had when touring ‘The Magic Position’ and “Hard Times” is a homage to Elvis Presley and the eccentric Klaus Nomi.

After a long period of wait, Chicks On Speed present us their new album ‘Cutting The Edge’ (coming out May, 29th). This time they worked hard on appealing pop music on an album full of possible hits and interludes. “Girl Monster” is accelerated and a great opening for the album, followed by the dance hit and probably most appealing song of the whole record “Art Rules”, electro pop at its best with lyrics reminding “99$” (“Art is a playground for people who have everything… the rich will always be with us”). It’s definitely the central piece of the album and it’s represented later on the second part of the album with Christopher Just’s “Hard One” version, an interesting re-interpretation of the song.
The entire album follows a dancing electro pop vibe that makes you move your head periodically to both sides like they did in the 80’s (the influence is obvious). “Vibrator” evokes lust in every possible way, simply imagine everyone around as vibrators! “Airport Connection” takes us to “Buzz” – pop about interesting travelling. “Extended Paintbrush” is great sexy hip-hop, “Globo Cop” is spatial and similar to the works of their friends Who Made Who. The first part of the album ends with “Strip Song” which is an updated version of ancient cabaret music!
Second part album of the album starts with the guide “How To Build A High Heeled Shoe Guitar” in 9 steps, extremely useful if you actually want to build one. The single “Super Surfer Girl” is pop that could be done by a 60’s girl group and precedes the ballad for bars with a lot of cigarette smoke and scotch-drinking men “Black And White Diva”. “Scream Song” is the most addictive 3 minutes of screaming loops you can find and the title track “Cutting The Edge” is rock (despite their second album had a song called “We Don’t Play Guitars”) about what’s real and what’s not, the vocals remind us their song “Wax My Anus” from the collaboration album with The Noheads.
Chicks On Speed have often been referred as bad musicians or an awful band (on this album they joke with that on the song “The Worst Band In The World”), but we must look at them as an artistic movement and not just a band. They’re fashion designers, they’re film makers, they’re performers, they’re plastic artists, and this reflects in their music, both in lyrics and sound. ‘Cutting The Edge’ is definitely their best album so far and it’s the perfect answer for those who didn’t believe them. Inspired by 80’s music and 60’s girl groups, Chicks On Speed constructed their masterpiece, where all fits perfectly together, every interlude (and there’s plenty) makes total sense where it’s located, experimentalism is always present, sometimes without even being noticed and all this makes a really solid album. This time we must lay down our arms for Chicks On Speed…
Below there’s a video for “Super Surfer Girl”

The Danish trio Who Made Who released their highly anticipated second album “The Plot”. The formula remains the same as in the first record, an effective mixture of electro-pop-rock. We all know that Who Made Who are not a perfect band and “The Plot” has some boring stuff like “Keep Me In My Plane” or “Small Town City”, but when they write a good song with an addictive vibe it’s impossible not to love them. Good examples for that are the songs “The Plot”, “This Train”, “Cyborg” or “Raveo”.
“The Plot” surely will not be listed as best of the year but its worth quite a few delightful listens…

Check the video for “This Train” done by Chicks On Speed