Solid Gold Popular Music Number Twenty One

Every week I post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me.

Solid Gold Popular Music Number Twenty One

Boredoms vs Lindstrom

It should be easy nowadays to turn the Japanese psycho drum kings the Boredoms into dance music, after all their music is about as danceable and groove based as experimental ever gets. On recent Japanese only release Super Roots 10 (hunt it down, it's out there), they get a make over from DJ Lindstrom, who does a great job of transforming them into space disco. Unlikely I know, but it really works.

Boredoms - Ant 10 (Remix By DJ Lindstrom)

Underrated: Electroclash

It's hard not to look back on the Electroclash scene of 2001 and 2002 without thinking about the people who liked it: preening, pretentious adrogonoids with angular hair, dayglo clothes and ambiguous incomes. Nathan Barley meets, well, no one really. People it's very difficult to like. Except, aren't all youth movements inherently irritating if you're on the outside? Just think of the scorn that must have been poured on the New Romantics in the early 80's, only later for them to be clutched to the nations bosom (admittedly after a little toning down on the eyeliner). Secondly, is this image even accurate? I used to go to Electroclash clubs all the time, and neither me nor my mates ever daubed ourselves in rediculously overpriced clothes that were designed to look like binliners covered in crisp packets, and I don't remember seeing that many people who did. The unfortunate result of this is that we forget the music, as if it was an after thought or a soundtrack to a fashion show of fools. By doing this we are overlooking some of the best and most influential dance music of the last 10 years.

It's easy to forget how much electroclash changed everything in dance music. As Kiran Sande explains in his recent Fact magazine article:

"It reconciled electronic and rock sensibilities, but with a sense of cabaret glamour a million miles away from the lager-fuelled indie-dance frippery of The Chemical Brothers. It was, more than anything, performance art – naturally attracting androgynous, stage-hungry figureheads like Fischerspooner and Peaches. In the UK electroclash restored character, confrontation and individuality to the rave after almost a decade of shallow “Cheers, nice one” camaraderie."

The main result of this sea change in attitude was that dance music became fun again. It had songs, ones you could sing along with while you danced (Sunglasses at Night, Deceptacon, Seventeen) as well as bangers (Silver Screen Shower Scene, Fuck The Pain Away, La La Land). This influence hasn't gone away, and dance music has been much more playful, experimental and extrovert ever since. Electroclash acted as a catalyst that begat Erol Alkan, Justice, Crookers, Hot Chip, and for better or worse, made Lady Gaga possible.

Mostly though, it gave us some cracking tunes. Here are some of my favourites, and for more see the Fact magazine top 20, it's a pretty good selection.

Felix Da Housecat - Silver Screen Shower Scene

Black Strobe - Me and Madonna

Green Velvet - La La Land

Tiga - Hot In Herre

Le Tigre - Deceptacon (DFA Remix)

Felix da Housecat - What Does It Feel Like (Royksopp Remix)

Soulwax - No Fun / Push It

Solid Gold Popular Music Number Twenty

Every week I post a song, for no reason other than it's fabulous. It may be old or new, obscure or over-exposed. No explanation, no fancy spiel, just solid gold popular music. Oh, and it's a secret, so you'll just have to trust me.

Solid Gold Popular Music Number Twenty

Sounds I'd like to hear more of in popular music...the donkey.

There's something particularly abrasive and atonal about a donkeys bray, and therefore it seems like the most unlikely sound that you'd ever hear in a pop song. That's why I want to hear it more often. If you know any others, be sure to let me know.

Scott Walker - Jolson and Jones

Extra points to Scott Walker for the lyric "I'll punch a donkey in the streets of Galway" and managing to make a donkey sound so utterly terrifying.

Kate Bush - Get Out Of My House

It may be a human impression, but that just makes me like it more.

Beck - Jackass

The song where most of us began our donkey odyssey.