Cool Kids of Techno Music
4 Dance Music Groups Who Are Putting a New Spin on Electro Music
If Daft Punk, Cassius, et al. were the postmodern electro music makers, mining the 1980s for clicks and beeps, the groups here are (forgive!) post-postmodern.
They’ve mostly abandoned the self-conscious vocoders and Roland TR-808s for a different element of the ‘80s, its post-punk, art-school sensibility. An untrained, DIY musical quality mixes with a benignly anti-establishment message.
Today, of course, “anti-establishment” can be as simple as rejecting hyperprocessed sounds and images for a simple, natural, “isn’t this fun?” vibe. (The same thing is happening in pop with Amy Winehouse, Mika and Lily Allen.)
Potty mouth is de rigueur with these bands (so punk!—the mood probably began with Peaches and especially Miss Kittin’s “Frank Sinatra”), as are the occasional derisive pop-idol reference and even some intra-group self-referential stuff.
- LCD Soundsystem--Members: James Murphy; Home: NYC----Daft Punk is probably still playing at his house, but Murphy has transcended them with his latest album, Sound of Silver (“Sound of silver talk to me, make you want to feel like a teenager, until you remember the feelings of, a real live, emotional teenager, then you think again”), which is an electro-poignant (can you imagine?) masterpiece. Here’s the latest single, “All My Friends.”
- Simian Mobile Disco--Members: James Ford, James Shaw; Home:Manchester ----This duo actually offers visitors to their site the chance to “plan a party around a SMD DJ set”—the party being called, of course, “SMD are playing at my house.” These guys were best known for doing remixes for the likes of Peaches (“Downtown”) and The Klaxons until lately, with songs like “Tits and Acid” and especially: “It’s the Beat (The Teenagers Mix).”
- The Teenagers --Members: Michael Szpiner, Dorian Dumont, Quentin Delafon; Home: London, Paris----Wonder what they want to feel like when they hear the sound of silver? This cute-as-kittens trio’s first single, “Homecoming,” will be released on May 20, and now that they’ve remixed an SMD tune (their version is somehow more pop-‘80s—in fact, they may well have mixed “Homecoming” with “It’s the Beat”), folks will likely be interested. Don’t be fooled by their milky smell—their take on the world is pure third-eye. “Homecoming” is basically a duet between two teenage takes on a vacation hookup—sung with delicate Euro accents. Refrain: (Boy: “I f**ked my American c**t); Girl: “I loved my English romance”). Last line: (Girl: Don’t forget to send me a Friend Request). The first release is also going to include “F**k Nicole” (hmm, whom could that be about?)
- CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy)--Members: Lovefoxxx, Adriano Cintra, Luiza Sá, Ana Rezende, Iracema Trevisan, Carolina Parra; Home:São Paulo----This band, whose name means “Tired of Being Sexy” in Portuguese, really did meet in art school in Brazil. There is nothing remotely Gisele about them, and they admit themselves that they had no idea how to play their instruments at first—sort of the Go-Gos meets Le Tigre. Sooo much fun to watch. Signature song: “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above.”
(Death From Above, by the way, is the name of LCD Soundsystem’s self-run label—and he once got into it with another would-be eponymous band who ultimately were forced to add “1979” to their moniker.
Today, one half of Death From Above 1979 is part of the electro duo, MSTRKRFT.
