Hallelujah!

A thingy that opens milk cartons without trauma!

Snapper haka

Happy Birthday, Nick the Greek!

7-Up...

... 7-Down!

Alex love Alex

Snapper: ready, willing, and able.

Bar lampshade

Arriba Mexico!

I used to think that good dance music tried to pry apart your cranium while relentlessly jacking your body. Been a while since I felt like that (Booka Shade? puh-leeze, way too polite). But along come No Somos Machos Pero Somos Muchos (We Aren't Macho But We Are Many) with songs like "Clap Your Brains Off!!"
'Nuff said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o-AJY7KW24
(Gracias a Jorge por el link...)

http://www.myspace.com/nosomosmachos

--

Also, Instituto Mexicano Del Sondio got it going on, less thumping but still cool, more tuneful, poppier, in a sample-happy kinda way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjl4ra5Y2O0&feature=related

(Warning: clip gets a bit screamy later on...)

Music 38: FACTs, Figures, and Kanye v. €0.37

From 18/9/07, when every waking moment (was) dominated by the chart battle between Kanye West and 50 Cent. Fiddy vowed to quit hip-hop if Kanye won. Kanye was always gonna win. Will 50 quit? Doubtful, given that the two are from the same damn record label. (He didn't quit. He toured the snowy peaks of Croatia instead.) *SIGH*

***SO ACE YOU SHOULDN'T REALLY HAVE TO DRAW ATTENTION TO THE FACT BUT HERE GOES ANYWAYS***
TUNNG - Good Arrows
Tunng features a guy who plays percussion, clarinet, melodica, melody harp, piano, kalimba, and horse's teeth: FACT.
Tunng make the ugly word "folktronica" more essential than you'd think it would be: FACT.
Tunng are awésômé*: FACT.
Douze points.
* Awésômé: pronounced (ah-weh-soh-meh), as in "Modest Mouse the other week were fuckin' awésômé".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIGPAfidi-o&mode=related&search=

KANYE WEST - Graduation
"Have you ever popped champagne on a plane / While getting some brain?
Whipped it out, she said, 'I never saw snakes on a plane.'"
OK, so lyrically he's an idiot, and he's another nauseating proponent of the "pointlessly conspicuous consumption is good" ethos, but never forget he can produce the bejeezus out of a tune. Takes his third album in a Euro-influenced, rave-flavoured, decayed-synth direction… kinda like Timbaland did recently, but this is more about synchronicity than bandwagoneering.
Neuf points.

50 CENT - Curtis
"Watch me as I pull a rabbit out my hat / It won't be a rabbit, it'll be a gat."
Shoddy, dull, unadventurous, lazy, shallow, and on the above information probably the worst - kids' party magician - ever! Also, the hilarious cover art features him fellating a semi-automatic pistol. Kind of.**

** Not really.
Zero points.

ALTERKICKS - Do Everything I Taught You
Appealing indie schmindie, with a singer that sounds a shade like like Lee Mavers (good), and a bleedin' dreadful name (bad). Do listen to "Oh Honey", the title track, and "The Cannibal Hiking Disaster"... especially the lyrics of the latter.

Sept points.

TERRA NAOMI - Under the Influence
Alternative pop-rock from a uniquely talented singer-songwriter. "Pop" in the sense that Alanis Morisette was pop… "rock" to the same degree that Hanson rocked... "alternative" in the sense that Spam is an alternative to ham. But palatable enough (obnov.) and probably enjoyable to fans of the Fiona Apples or the Jewels of this world, or those who bought the Ally McBeal soundtrack.

Trois points.

Music 37: A-We-So-Me

SPOON - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Britt Daniels is some kind of rock god, but the obscure kind that doesn't get the attention and adulation they're due. For the uninitiated, Spoon knock out classic rock tunes like rabbits make baby rabbits. It initially seemed like "Ga... (x5)" might be missing some of the solid gold quality of their last full-length, "Gimme Fiction", but it musta been impatience, because this is A-WE-SO-ME. The songs here are cut with Motown brass or Stax stomp, or something like Elvis Costello's blue-eyed soul... but you look a little deeper and there's all manner of dub-tinged studio trickery and bizarre instrumentation. But! there's not an ounce of fat on any of these songs, each one is a taut, lean mainline hit of tunefulness. Highlights are too many to mention, but let's try: the brilliant, seesawing chug of "Rhythm & Soul"; the anthems-in-waiting that are "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb" and "The Underdog"... or the splintered, hypnotic genius of "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case".

INSTITUTO DEL SONIDO MEXICANO - Piñata
Cumbia hip-pop dub breakbeat dance fusion from the Head of EMI Records Mexico, no less. This is pretty ace, a ragtag bag of insidious, quirky hooks, chunky beats, and a true mixologist's love of surprising juxtaposition. With more good tunes than you can shake a palito* at, this is as fun as Avalanches or Ursula 1000 or "Cookies"-era Jacknife Lee.
*

THE TUSS - Rushup Edge
Brain- and body-bending avant-dance from the Aphex Twin... (gawd he loves those pseudonyms). And like everything Richard D James does, when a track kicks off, you've no idea exactly where it's gonna end. Intelligent techno that doesn't care who understands it, but knows the only right course of action is to dance. Bleeptastic.

PETE PHILLY & PERQUISITE - Mind.State
Excellent Dutch hip-hop: organic, funky, jazz-tinged and soulful. This is ace, and I came to it after hearing the remixed set "Re:Mind.State" which further showcased the depth of Perq's musicianship and production skills.

SHADY BARD - From the Ground Up
Worth a thousand of yer Coldplays or Keanes, this is subtle, delicate, layered, pastoral rock, topped off with Lawrence Becko's cracked, old-before-his-time voice.

PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL - Prinzhorn Dance School
Signed to James "LCD Soundsystem" Murphy's DFA Label, so you know to expect a metronomic, punk-funk dance type thing. You might not be fully prepared for 40 minutes of funereal basslines, leaden drums, and yappy boy-girl Brit vocals. This actually isn't so bad - a track at a time rather than start to finish - because these guys have boiled their style down to an inimitable essence. The formula works best on "Do You Know Your Butcher?", "Crackerjack Doctor", and the WTF-nutso "Hamworthy Sports and Leisure Centre".

TUNNG - Bricks (single)
Single and remixes from the glitchiest experimental folksters around: full album next week.

ROSALIE DEIGHTON - 21 Days
Pleasantly unreconstructed folk, kept afloat by Rosalie's yearning, no-longer-vulnerable voice (which adopts shades of Joni Mitchell when she takes it up a register), delicate guitar work, and strong songwriting.

SPARTA - Threes
Muscular, sleek, dramatic rawk from former members of At The Drive-In (the ones that aren't now The Mars Volta, obnov.) that actually gives Emo a good name.