It’s a Hit

by Tommy Sparks
(Island)

Listening to this blind—sans pertinent info—I guessed
Sparks was from Stockholm before I decided to look him up. Sure enough,
that’s where he grew up—young hiphop fan, mind blown by Stop
Making Sense, pre-Nirvana indie, rave, etc. Now he makes fake ’80s
new pop (think the British stuff on early MTV), just like acres of his
countrymen, and this song’s pretty undeniable, if not necessarily all
that enjoyable.

by Lily Allen
(EMI)

Speaking of Stockholm, that’s where producer Sven Hallström
comes from. His bread and butter is remixing pop records into club
anthems under the name StoneBridge. It’s an odd position:
Hallström is an auteur of sorts, with an identifiable sound, but
it’s the sound that’s famous, not him. Listen to his remix of “The
Fear” and you’ll recognize it instantly: clean, boxy Eurohouse with
spangly digital keyboards, like someone texting their best friend the
next penthouse over.

Under lots of other circumstances, this approach to remaking a song
that was already doing okay on its own would seem intrusive. But this
is Lily Allen’s lament about fame: “It doesn’t matter ’cause I’m
packing plastic/And that’s what makes my life so fucking fantastic,”
and then, on the chorus, “I don’t know what’s right and what’s real
anymore.” Hallström’s bubbling beats and decor that’s half oompah
(the flat-foursquare beat), half dreamy complement things perfectly. In
fact, they make the original song seem superfluous.

by Cobblestone Jazz
(Wagon Repair)

By contrast, this bubbling 12-inch leaves any ideas of “pop” behind.
Not just be-cause Vancouver trio Cobblestone Jazz maketechno, which
usually eschews song struture, but because they’re essentially an
improvising unit. This time around, Tyger Dhula, Mathew Jonson, and
Danuel Tate were joined by the Mole, whose own Wagon Repair titles have
a more loop-based approach, and the combination works brilliantly:
These tracks breathe and move in what sounds like real time, with
“Fiesta” coolly unfurling a slow 303 line and “Traffic Jam” turning the
heat up with a mesmerizing static-tinged keyboard riff, without losing
any tension.

by the Crystal Method ft. LMFAO
(myspace.com/thecrystalmethod)

Here’s another approach to dance music: Invite the biggest bozo you
can get on the microphone and make sure your music is equally boorish.
Low point among many: “What I like is girls cooking breakfast/And what
I really like is them cooking nekkid.” As bad as “I Love College.”