This is awesomely danceable, cheesy French electrohouse by one of the original masters, David Guetta. It’s awesome this album has gotten so commercial and it probably sticks out like a sore thumb on this site, but I’ve been so into “When Love Takes Over” ever since I first heard it two months ago. Then, driving in the car with a friend, I found myself strangely loving a new Black Eyed Peas song (?!?!) called I Gotta Feeling. Turns out it’s produced by Guetta. If this is the direction pop music is going, I’m all for it; at least it’s something danceable, and boy are the lyrics fun. I don’t know whether I should like the song “Sexy Bitch” as much as I do, but the lyric “She is nothing like a girl you’ve ever seen before, nothing you can compare to your neighborhood hoe/I’m trying find the words to describe this girl without being disrespectful [Damn, girl!]/Damn You’s a sexy bitch, a sexy bitch…” well, I wonder if it’s kind of brilliant.

This album is fun, in part because it reminds me of summer, as I saw him at Electric Zoo at the tail end of one of my craziest summers ever. You will probably enjoy When Love Takes Over, Gettin’ Over, Sexy Bitch, I Gotta Feeling, I Want To Go Crazy. just don’t think too hard :)

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Ghetto & fun electro dance from Australia. It’s really silly stuff, and I can’t tell if they’re serious. This ambiguity kind of suggests that they’re a sort of ironic-hipster electro-dance group (in the vein of EAR PWR, who are also really fun), but whatever their intentions, it’s tasty stuff.

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OK, so I am now the fourth (so far as I know) blog to post this, which means it’s up to you, dear reader, to spread this everywhere! With cover art like this, you know it’s gonna be some ultra-kick-ass retro 80s french house electro nu disco awesomeness, but you just don’t know the degree to which FM Attack has hit the nail on the head. Although there are only two songs from which to gauge his talent (check his myspace for more), Vancouver’s Shawn Ward has proven his place in a burgeoning scene that is often overcrowded with cheap imitators. The first track, Disco Attack is a nice, rhythmic deep housey electro track that recalls early 80s French clubs, while the second track, Take Me Away, is a much fresher and contemporary interpretation of retro electro sounds with a nu-disco sensibility brought to us by artists from the Valerie collective such as Anoraak, among others. Each track represents a pole on the range of electro music wonderland that FM Attack deftly traverses, though if I could I would encourage him to stick to innovating with more tracks such as Take Me Away for a more accessible full-length and stick to extended edits of tracks like Disco Attack for his live performances, which I eagerly await.

Two full tracks at 320 kbps, pick ‘em up down below!

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I thought I’d post this a while back as a way to link together the balearic Swedish synthpop bands I was posting to slightly harder electro / less beachy synth bands such as the French electro nudisco Valerie scene, but then I couldn’t help myself and just went ahead posting from Valerie artists anyways. And now I return to Familjen, or Johan T Karlsson, a Swedish electro/synthpop solo artist (with a full live band) who makes bouncy, anthemic electronic songs. He could be compared to Juvelen, inasmuch as they both are solo synth-driven electronic acts, but there is something much less traditionally poppy about Familjen; the album considers every stylistic tendency of pop instead of focusing on one all-encompassing aesthetic (overly ebullient, too many ballads), which gives the album a rounded and wholly persynal feel. I can definitely sense the amount of authorship involved in the record - every sound is carefully chosen for the impression it’s trying to convey, which can be both a selling point and a detraction from the album. As a whole the album lacks cohesiveness, allowing a few tracks to stand out while others which aren’t particularly bad simply fade into the background, almost as staging ground for the more stellar outputs such as Det Snurrar I Min Skalle, Nu Hander Det Igen, Vad Du Vill, Huvudet I Sanden, and Det Lilla Livet. It’s like taking a trip in his mind, and experiencing everything he wants to express, good and bad, and while the bad can often be expressed through eloquent synth loops, sometimes to give an album a sense of connection, it is good to self-edit and really decide about the role each track plays in contributing to the work as a whole, something I feel is lacking when I listen to some of the gaps in an otherwise respectable album. I guess when it comes down to it, Familjen is good, but can’t do everything perfect, so he should stick to what he knows he can rock, which are more driving, bouncy synth tracks and less of the New Order-esque electronic songs and ballads like Nan Gang and Hog Luft. Come to think of it, most tracks I don’t find favor with on here sound a little New Order revivalist, so it might be my strong affinity for New Order which is stopping me from appreciating his imitations. Either way, get it for the good tracks not the bad ones, then make an informed decision; it’s still music so you can’t go wrong. Ok, maybe I should self-edit some more, hehe.

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Hot damn, this is the perfect electro album of 2009. It came outta thin air for me - some hype on Fact Magazine, a lot on myspace and all over blogs (that I wasn’t cool enough to read until recently) and they’re all right - this guy has got it all. It’s not too heavy on the super thick Ed Banger synth scissors but has a righteous funk and a bunch of spunk on every track, whether sparkly electronic dance or deeper electro house. There’s a very specific vibe throughout this album that this is a party-couture album (like Jimmy Edgar, but thicker), one which can be enjoyed at a French electro raver club or a boring ol’ college rager. The beats are crisp, pulsing, and impeccable - it’s just the right amount for a little bite on the edge, but poppy melodies which make everybody bounce. And how could you not? Yuksek has seemingly pulled all the best parts of Justice, Daft Punk, Valerie-type artists, M83, and Mr. Oizo, and created a seamless pop soundtrack for a new era of electro nostalgia.

This is gonna make a lot of year-end lists, I can tell by how others are talking about it, and there’s a reason - it’s perfect. This is the French electro album. Get it.

Top Tracks: Break Ya, A Certain Life, This Is Not Today, I Could Never Be A Dancer, I Like To Play, Tonight, So Down

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guys, its time for a sober rant:::
so i’ve grown kind of disillusioned with traditional electronic dance music. a lot of the sounds started to blur and nothing really innovative was going on. there were a few great acts that really stood out (SOUTH CENTRAL / JUSTICE), but everything that followed was more or less derivative (not that it sounded BAD, but it wasn’t like damn). even the old greats were toppling under the inflated confidence of their success (DAFT PUNK, wtf was that last album?). this album by Filthy Dukes is unfortunately not worth wow but its good stuff…like a horizon to look towards for better days of electronic dance. in the context of dance music, its great. a very enjoyable electro-pop album. but my changing tastes leave me not all too psyched by it. SO YOU SHOULD CHECK IT OUT FOR YRSELF & DECIDE, INDEPENDENT THINKER.

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sorry yall, been outta commission for a bit…had my body and spirit pushed to the limit, on the highway to the danger zone, and work’s been givin’ me the gut/kidney punch combo, but still i keep on truckin’. posting may be sporadic for the next week but ill do my best to keep feeding yr ears.

This is noise electro. Shouted/fuzzy vocals, grinding/biting synths and glitchy effects. DIRTY, the best filth for yr ears. Like Crystal Castles but less 8-bit & more grimy & faster/more bumpin’. CAVEAT: the songs kind of blend into each other, which is the album’s kryptonite…but it’s fun, you could probs (even totes) thrash to this.

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I don’t actually really like this band, but maybe just cuz i’m in a pissy mood. It’s kind of harder disco(f/p)unk shit, idk, i feel like it’s a little overdone. it’s just kinda…brash and vulgar (just like their second album title). so whatever - get it or not…your choice

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(NOTE: this isn’t an album, just some of their tracks I’ve collected off the vast internets)

So I found out about these guys last year or so, after Justice had gotten really big and the excitement was starting to fade. The MP3BLAGOSPHERE(tm) was lookin for the next big thing. Revolte is a French (OF COURSE, dance music is France’s most profitable export) electro duo. It’s hard-hitting, funky, and glitchy w/ hints of the disco…they’re gonna be compared to Justice and were even hailed as their successors. I love the sound, though it isn’t incredibly radical or fresh the way Justice was when they hit the scene, but it certainly does carry on their legacy. If you <3 electro, check deez guyz out.

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(BTW, their “DJ LIFEFORCE” [the symbol/imagery/mask from which a DJ derives all of his or her power] is crash-test dummies…one of these days i’m gonna write a paper on DJ symbology, SO FASCINATING)

I’ve been sitting on this one for awhile, but it’s relatively new stuff (came out late last year). These guys are from the UK (not South Central). Years of listening to electronic (particularly dance) music had jaded my robot ears…I was growing tired of the scene…I was still in love with the electro sound but nothing new or interesting was being done with it, and then there was that 80’s revival thing going on (which I still love even though it can be kind of derivative) and not much else. All the sounds kind of melded into one (but not in a Voltron way). But this album…IT CHANGES EVERYTHING. These guys are an electronic duo AND a five-piece band. Their shows are live - no lame DJ sets - they got live drums and guitars and vocals and live effect manipulation. The sound is the love child of electro and punk if it were raised in a rough neighborhood so it’s as tough as nails. And the guys have a real great punk-DIY-ethos…their effects are handmade. They are the defibrillators for the hard electronic dance scene. They are the map that shows the way for the lost DJs and producers of the world. They are the light for the masses of musicians huddled over their laptops in the dark. OK METAPHOR OVERLOAD here’s the album (plus some bonus remixes!):

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PS in their band photos they’re a bunch of BAMFs with those hoodies…like hip zombies or something. Wanna be a part of their gang // <3