“Bucky Done Gun (Billion
Dollar DJs Remix for Kicks)”
by M.I.A.
(myspace.com/billiondollardjs)
The musical data stream is all glut, all the time, so I usually
don’t mind being a little bit behind on things. (Not like I, or anyone
else, will ever be fully caught up, nor that it would be especially
better for us if we were, but you know, I do try.) But I’m further
behind than usual. For example, this has been floating around on the
web since at least July. Billion Dollar DJs are a Brit electro duo, and
what they do with the most hurricane-like track off M.I.A.’s debut is
make it sound like a glow-in-the-dark slot machine. Neon synths light
up with every stiff, slashing chord, and they illuminate the singer
from within.
“One Pure Thought
(Supermayer Remix)”
by Hot Chip
(EMI)
And I mean way further behind: I only recently became
acquainted with this, though it came out in March, way before the
Cologne, Germany, duo—Kompakt majordomo Michael Mayer and label
star Superpitcher—headlined Decibel. In two ways I wasn’t
expecting it: Usually these guys’ remixes are lush, which this is
anything but. And it’s as bare-knuckled as any dance groove this year,
but it isn’t minimal techno: It sounds instead like a 99 Records
tribute, Supermayer cutting away every stray sinew off the bones of a
clackety guitar-bass tandem and isolating the tensest hi-hat ever
picked up by digital signaling.
“No Epiphany”
by Fucked Up
(Matador)
And now for something more recent: This Toronto punk sextet manages
a neat trick here—psychedelic hardcore, music that elevates you
to the astral plane and throws you right into the middle of the pit at
the exact same time. The intro is so dawn-over-the-mountains that once,
when this came on at random, I wondered when I put a Boredoms song on
my iPod; then Pink Eyes, the band’s vocalist, comes in sounding like
Mr. Drano and we’re right in the gutter again. 