Casiokids – “Finn Bikkjen”

Some songs are just born singles, perfect little gems that set up house without asking and don’t leave when asked, no matter how kindly you insist. Norway’s Casiokids’s recent release “Finn Bikkjen” is exactly one of those songs: a prefect mixture of melody, beat, and, my own personal audio aphrodisiac, a fat analog synth lead. The ice cream on top is a reverbed, vocal line with a soft melody and sung in a language I can’t understand, which for some reason only makes me love it more. The song undulates from spacier bridges to the uptempo synth-laden chorus that never fails to have induce some sort of contented nodding along. Quite simply, electropop at its finest.

Casiokids – Finn Bikkjen

This, in combination with their last single “Fot I Hose”, another bouncy, synthy tune leads me to feel nothing but anticipation for whatever they choose to record next. Beyond their odd inclusion in the Fifa 2010 soundtrack, I guarantee more exposure for them this year as they’re supporting Hot Chip on tour this February:

12 – Glasgow – O2 Academy
13 – Edinburgh – Picture House
15 – Nottingham – Rock City
16 – Leeds – O2 Academy
19 – Manchester – Academy
20 – Birmingham – O2 Academy
21 – Southampton – Joiners
22 – 
Bournemouth – O2 Academy
23 – Bristol – O2 Academy
24 – Norwich – O2 Academy
25 – London – Camden Barfly (Headline Show)
26 – London – Brixton Academy

In the US, you can’t purchase their singles through iTunes, but you can grab the Moshi Moshi label compilation. It features “Fot I Hose” and the b-side “Verdens Største Land” along with tracks by Au Revoir Simone, Samuel & the Dragon, and The Very Best. To download the compilation through iTunes click the cover to the right.

The 7″ singles for both “Finn Bikkjen” and “Verdens Største Land” are available direct from Moshi Moshi Records.

Grizzly Bear x Hot Chip – “Boy From School” Cover

Today, for some reason, Grizzly Bear was on my mind. While driving around some back roads, I was listening to my favorites off Veckatimest, mulling over the evolution in songwriting from Yellow House to today. The album is certainly one of my favorites from last year and “Two Weeks” still stands as both a killer single and video.

Sitting in my inbox almost summoned by my daylong binge I found this newly minted live Grizzly Bear track. Recorded for Austrailia’s Triple J Radio, the band covers “Boy From School”, one of the finer tracks off Hot Chip’s 2006 album The Warning. The song is given the standard, but wonderful Grizzly Bear-ification: the tempo is slowed, everything is doused in a healthy amount of reverb and the vocal harmonies snake around each other like bacon wrapped around a steak. (In general, this blog is short on vegan friendly metaphors) It’s a lovely interpretation of an already good song, and even if it’s just some under the radar promotion for Hot Chip’s upcoming One Life Stand, I’m ok with that.

Grizzly Bear – Boy From School (Hot Chip Cover)

Please check out Triple J’s website to hear more of the interesting stuff they have to offer.

Hudson Mohawke’s ‘ZOo00OOm’

The Warp debut by Glaswegian Ross Birchard is certainly one of the most interesting albums that 2009 has dropped in our collective laps. Butter is a beautifully chaotic swirl of influences: L.A. glitch-hop, smears of Warp’s spacier back catalog, and at its weirdest there’s charmed allusions to 1970′s prog/experimental masters The Mahavishnu Orchestra. It’s a wonderfully experimental affair, something far more worthy of the Warp branding than the label’s current top seller Veckatimest.

Trying to pick a song to feature here was a bit of a challenge. On the whole, Butter is a long and twisted affair, a bit exhausting to listen to from front to back. It’s strangely uneven too, with some songs congealing more than others, though that is often the byproduct anything so experimental. Still, it’s still one of the best this year has brought forth.

When I first took a pass at the album, the track that kicked my ass the hardest was ZOo00OOm, because…well, I’m a sucker for a killer synth lead. Amidst the hard stomping ghost of an electrified Dilla beat and the fluttering Casio bleep accompaniment is a hard synth that creeps out an almost cheesy sci-fi sounding melody. It’s one of the more linear and charmed tracks on the album; equal parts head-nodding wonky goodness as well something to put on at high volumes to scare the piss out of your cat.

Hudson Mohawke – ZOo00OOm

Seriously though, I’ll throw $20 bucks on the table for whoever can get Outkast back in the studio and have Hudson Mohawke produce the album. Fuck, that would be epic.

Also epic – the Butter album cover:

Butter was released by Warp Records on October 27th 2009

Schneider TM – Sublimely Swirling German Electro-pop



Germans have an interesting concept of pop music, especially when electronics play in to the mix. I’ll credit them with always having a strangely coherent grasp of melding the organic and the inorganic into something that felt more natural than when other nationalities took a stab at the same thing.

Schneider TM, the recording name of Dirk Dresselhaus, is a guy who has a masterful grasp of a solid songcraft, threading “Slide” with a warm comforting melody that intermingles violin, vocoder, and dissonant guitar ambiance with a thin semblance of looped percussion. As much as the song has a somber overtone, there’s something genuinely uplifting about the song as a whole.

Schneider Tm – Slide

2006′s album Skoda Mluvit is a much more realized album when put in context with his earlier work. While his earlier stuff is certainly good…(you can’t really go wrong with 2000′s “Reality Check” there’s something more evolved about the production this time around. It’s cleaner and much more confident, and the whole album is far more cohesive as a result.

As a bonus, here’s the charmingly nonsensical video from the lead single off Skoda Mluvit, “Pac Man/Shopping Cart”:

Twitter Recap! – Tokyo Police Club, Wale, Black Dice, Thermals & More!

In an effort to diversify content between the actual site and the Taking Tiger Mountain Twitter, I tend post links to whatever random free music links I find while trolling the web. This helps keeping the twitter from being just the occational rant and “OH HAI BLOG UPDATE LINK.”

For those who aren’t yet subscribed (wink, wink) enjoy a recap of the past week’s free mp3′s and videos links!

[MP3]

Black Dice – ‘Glazin’

Motel Motel – ‘Coffee’

Tokyo Police Club – ‘Juno’

Tokyo Police Club – ‘Juno (Ra Ra Riot Remix)’

Wale – ‘Nightlife (feat. Tre and Young Chris)’

Thermals – ‘Now We Can See’

Mountains – ‘Choir’

Mimas – ‘Cats on Fire’

Kanye West – ‘Love Lockdown (Lunice remix)’

A full live Andrew Bird set from 2002

[VIDEO]

Radiohead performing ’15 Step’ with the USC Marching Band at the Grammys

Ladytron’s new video for ‘Tomorrow’

Crystal Antlers – ‘Until The Sun Sets (live)’

John Vanderslice – ‘Too Much Time (live)’

N.A.S.A – ‘Hip Hop’

A full live set from Ratatat in Paris

Please add the Taking Tiger Mountain Twitter if you like what you see!

If not, I’ll do a link round-up again soon…

Stomping Through The Air – Beirut’s ‘La Llorona’

With the lumbering opening notes of ‘La Llorona’ the shift in mode is clear; a Mexican tinge has overtaken the Parisan lilt, just as the gypsy folk mode died before it. The song ticks away nearly half it’s length letting just the horns and layers of voice hang and mingle together. Slowly, the drums arrive, encompassing the true spirit and feeling of a traditional march. The tone is somber and the tempo reflects.

The track is thanklessly unencumbered by a need to be modern music, it draws so clearly from the aesthetic of its influence to become clearly a love letter from Zach to the era and culture in question. He’s so clear in his desire, that any touches of modern influence are pushed away into a separate project with a separate name.

For all that Zach Condon does to shift the overall tint of Beirut, there’s an inherent sameness to the “Beirut sound”. Now, that’s not a bad thing, as like with The Ramones, if you enjoy the vibe…you’ll enjoy what they do…no matter what the influence.

Beirut – La Llorona

The dual EP of Beirut’s March of the Zapotec and Realpeople’s Holland releases Feburary 17th on Obey Your Brain.