The Focussed Distractions (aka, Jon McLeod) has hints of the Chemical Brothers and Beatles-esque harmonies on this particular track.  Be on the look out for brand new music from The Focussed Distraction as a series of online singles over the next year, all to be titled: BLANKET ROOM RECORDS (Parts 1 – 4).

The Focussed Distraction – The Surface Sound

Bandcamp

The french duo Equatuer (Romain Nouhi & Charles Rocher) have produced a wonderful New Wave track called, “Haunted”. From the initial second this track started to play, my ears instantly started smiling — well, you know what I mean.

Equatuer – Haunted

Splash of 80′s grandeur are sprinkled through out, and reminiscent of bands such as the Sparks.  Excellent combination of electronic pop and rock.

School is Cool – Warpaint

Soundcloud

90′s inspired house sound on this track from The 2 Bears, who released their full length album, “Be Strong” today.  The 2 Bears are a London-based musical duo formed in 2009 composed of Joe Goddard (of electronic band Hot Chip) and Raf Rundell.

The 2 Bears – Get Together

The 2 Bears: Be Strong (OUT NOW!) by The 2 Bears

At last, the first track from my collaboration with The Reverb Junkie is here!   For those that have followed me on twitter, facebook, or at my other site (www.oddyear.net) have known for sometime that I was working a on a new project but not much else.  Well at long last we have a sample of what to expect from our forthcoming album.

Think along the lines of Hot Chip, Miike Snow, Imogen Heap and you’ll have a solid base as to the sound and characteristics of our music.   The collaboration began when I first heard The Reverb Junkies vocals on a track from dntel (one half of the postal service) over at indabamusic.com.  From there we started sending files back and forth and here we are with the release of our first single.

Be sure to follow both The Reverb Junkie and Odd Year via our soundcloud pages:  Soundcloud [The Reverb Junkie] & Soundcloud [Odd Year]

Odd Year & The Reverb Junkie – Might Not Happen

Bandcamp

Odd Year & The Reverb Junkie – Might Not Happen by The Reverb Junkie

Odd Year & The Reverb Junkie – Might Not Happen by oddyear

Digging that 80′s DX7-esque bassline on this joint —  Micheal Jackson would be  proud.

Jacques Lu Cont – Church

Christopher Norman is back with a new release from his forthcoming “EP 3 “.   This time around, it’s a warm mid tempo track showcasing his velvet smooth voice (think Damon Albarn [Gorillaz front man] in tone).  Love the balance of electronic tones with the  more  traditional classical elements, such as the piano and strings, a lovely balance indeed.

Christopher Norman – Connect Me

Connect Me by misternorman

Lyrics:

[verse 1]
room alight with sparks
running up the wall / more static left to discharge
diffusing it quietly
i know how it feels to be
stuck living inside your head
chasing words that were never said

[chorus]
baby I can feel the voltage running through my skin
come on and tap into the current i’m generating
down through every node
my circuits overload with all this energy

heart racing / without a sound
every wall around you coming down
take a look at me / plug it in and see
how it works when you connect me

[verse 2]
none of your transmissions getting free
you’re out of time / no charge left in your battery
all of this resistance in your way
with no power you’ll decay
don’t you know I’m calling you all the time?
nothing but noise to hear on your line

[chorus]

How about some acid house for you all, going back to 2005 on this 12″ from Different Gear.

Different Gear – Worry (ft. Dirty Kylie)

Moody and driving is the track, “Brothers”.  Taken from their forthcoming album, “Mixed Emotions” due out  March 20th.

Tanlines – Brothers

Soundcloud

Track List for Mixed Emotions:

1) Brothers
2) All Of Me
3) Green Grass
4) Abby
5) Yes Way
6) Not The Same
7) Lost Somewhere
Real Life
9) Rain Delay
10) Cactus
11) Nonesuch

Yes, another solid track from The 2 Bears, injecting some old school house sound in this one.

The 2 Bears – Work

Work by The 2 Bears

Visc. is 18 year old musician Dylan Fellows, from Athens, Georgia. On Apollo, Dylan sounds like a male version Chrissie Hynde (lead singer of the Pretenders) being backed by an Erasure track.  So in other words, a dream match-up come true.  Really looking forward to hearing more of this electronic dream match up!

Visc. – Apollo
Visc. – Virtual Friend

Soundcloud

50 Rimer London

Rimer London

49 Rodriguez Jr.

Rodriguez Jr. – Bare

48 Monarch

Monarchy – You Don’t Want To Dance With Me (ft. Britt Love)

47 Jagwar Ma

Jagwar Ma – Come Save Me

46 Get People

Get People – Rain Tears

45 Cold Cave

Cold Cave – Confetti

Purchase: Cold Cave – Cherish the Light Years

44 Calibre

Calibre – Even If

43 Oliver

Oliver – Memories Of The Future

42 Foster the People

Foster the People – Call It What You Want

41 Brandy Kills

Brandy Kills – One

40 When Saints Go Machine

When Saints Go Machine – Add Ends

39 AlunaGeorge

AlunaGeorge – You Know You Like It

38 Benoit & Sergio

Benoit & Sergio – Everybody

37 Huck Finn

Huck Finn – Charles Dickens

36 Black Light Dinner Party

Black Light Dinner Party – Small Boxes

35 Junior Boys

Junior Boys – Truly Happy Ending

34 Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Household Goods

Purchase: Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs -EP [Vinyl]

33 The Reverb Junkie

The Reverb Junkie – Good To Get Away (Wait It Out)

32 Jamie Woon

Jamie Woon – Night Air

31 Monarchy

Monarchy – Resignation

30 Class Actress

Class Actress – Weekend

29 Datarock

Datarock – Catcher In Rye

28 Beni

Beni – Someone Like You (ft. Mattie Safer)

27 The Black Ghost

The Black Ghosts – In The Clouds

26 M83

M83 – Midnight City

25 Alex Clare

Alex Clare – Caroline

24 Goyte

Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know (Ft. Kimbra)

23 Monarchy

Monarchy – I Won’t Let Go
Purchase: Monarchy – Monarchy

22 College

College – A Real Hero (ft Electric Youth)

21 The Reverb Junkie

Idioteque – Asleep (ft. Reverb Junkie) DEMO by thereverbjunkie

20 Black Light Dinner Party

Black Light Dinner Party – Older Together

19 Louis La Roche & Patrick Alavi

Louis La Roche & Patrick Alavi – Number One (ft. Josh Jakq)

18 Newtimers

Newtimers – Falling

17 The Twelevs

The Twelves – When You Talk

16 Flight Facilities

Flight Facilities – Foreign Language (ft. Jess)

15 Christopher Norman

Christopher Norman – Maps

14 When Saints Go Machine

When Saints Go Machine – Kelly

13 Sebastian

Sebastian – Love In Motion (Featuring Mayer Hawthorne)

12 SBTRKT

SBTRKT – Wildfire (ft. Little Dragon)

11 Black Light Dinner Party

Black Light Dinner Party – Gold Chain

10 Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Dream On

9 Pretty Good Dance Moves

Pretty Good Dance Moves – I Wonder Why (Ft. Brazilian Girls’ Sabina Sciubba)

8 Sneaky Sound System

Sneaky Sound System – We Love

7 Benny Benassi

Benny Benassi – Cinema (ft. Gary Go)

6 Metronomy

Metronomy – The Bay

5 Penguin Prison

Penguin Prison – Multi-Millionaire

4 Architecture in Helsinki

Architecture in Helsinki – Contact High

Purchase: Architecture in Helsinki – Moment Bends

3 Calvin Harris

Calvin Harris – Bounce

2 Martin Solveig

Martin Solveig – Hello

1 Joe Goddard

 Joe Goddard feat. Valentina – ‘Gabriel’ by Greco-Roman

Some tracks just grab you from the moment of the first note, and others take awhile to warm up like an old oven.  This happens to be a case of the latter.  I wasn’t really get grabed by this track until I recently saw the video for it, which compelled me to watch/listen to this track for it’s entirety.  I sure am grateful I did.  There have been a few tracks that have been “slow burners” for me this year and typically, they up being my favorites.  Now I get to add this track to said list.

Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know (Ft. Kimbra)

Plastic Operator is set to release their new full length, due out in Feb 2012, and from it they have just released their first single, “Making It Right”.

Plastic Operator – Making It Right

Fitting, since this is after all the weekend, but that just happens to be coincidence to be honest.  I some how forgot to post this track when I initially ran by it.  After all, I’ve had this thing playing on my iPod for quite sometime now.  Anyhow, this track is taken from their first full length titled, Rapprocher (meaning “to come closer” in French), which was released in October of this year.

Bio from last.fm

Class Actress is a synthpop band formed in 2009 in Brooklyn, New York City, USA. The group consists of the singer-songwriter Elizabeth Harper and the producers Scott Rosenthal and Mark Richardson. Their music has been compared with artists like Depeche Mode, The Human League, OMD and Madonna.

Class Actress – Weekend

Band Site

Class Actress, Electronic, Pop, Best of 2011

This is electronic pop perfection.  This single was released back in 1982 on RCA records, but it was initially considered a flop.  It wasn’t until the bands’ break out hit “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” that the single shot up the charts, and ultimately landing on U.S. Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs Chart at the seven spot.

From Songfacts.com:

“The song was produced by Dave Stewart and Adam Williams and was self-financed at Eurythmics’ 8-track facility above a picture framing factory in Chalk Farm, London. They decided on a simpler arrangement than their previous singles emphasizing Annie’s vocals more. Said Lennox: “We did decide for ‘Love Is A Stranger’ that everything in it would be very clear. All that is there is seen to be there and nothing is hidden in a big mush of sound.” Stewart added: “Using our own eight track we hear a song millions of times and the melody in it is always apparent to us. We realized it might not be so obvious for people hearing the song for the first time.”"

Eurythmics – Love Is A Stranger

Nothing like new Monarchy to kick off the weekend, enjoy!  This track can be found on their bonus disc from a Limited edition, signed, deluxe double CD. Only 500 copies.

You can buy it here: www.monarchysound.com/shop

Monarchy – Resignation

 
Resignation (bonus track) by Monarchy

Press Release:

Gary is ready to let loose his creative side on his upcoming new album Now Was Once The Future.  The album features Gary’s new version of “Cinema” which transforms the song into a spacious down-tempo ballad and features guest vocals from Carina Round.  

I had previously posted the original version produced by Benny Benassi (read hear), but I also appreciate this more mellow take of the this track as well.

Gary Go – Cinema (Ft Carina Round)

Miike Snow just premired there latest single from their new forthcoming album.  A triumphant sounding track with the always velvet sounding Andrew Wyatt on vocals.  Been looking forward to new Miike Snow after devouring their first release, which is still in heavy rotation on my iPod.

Miike Snow – Devil’s Work

Devil’s Work by miikesnow