Saul Williams on his new record, created in collaboration with Trent Reznor is following a similar release to Radiohead. It’s due out on November 1st, and you can choose to pay nothing and get the album as 192 kbps MP3s, or pay $5 and get 320 kbps MP3s or lossless FLAC files.
This is the future people.
(and it’s about time, since Oink.cd just got busted).
I’d just like to make a quick apology for the absence of updates lately. I’ve been busy working on my PhD thesis, which I MUST finish by the end of the year, or I’ll go mad. And my co-conspirator His Whoreness is disconnected from the online world while he moves flats. I’ll try and get some tasty treats out to you this weekend to make up for it.
Just rest assured that we still love you.
The first tier of KiwiBurn 2008 tickets went on sale several weeks ago. I only just realised I don’t have mine yet, so if you want to come to the New Zealand Burning Man regional event you should buy now and save yourself some cash!
I went this year and had a rocking time. This might have been partly because it was my first live gig, so it’ll always hold a special place in my heart 
Weird Pscience was yet another very special event put on by the Wellington Dance Collective and organised by the fantastic Wendy.
I played my set, and mixed genres up quite a lot. There was tech-house, electro, indie, and grungey distorted beats. The winning track, or the one that people made the most comments about was Hi Tack’s Let’s Dance:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
This is quite possibly the worst song ever.
No really, it’s really bad.
Although only six minutes long, you’ll be left desperately counting the seconds, hoping in vain for a swift end.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
30 Seconds To Mars – Stronger (Kanye West cover) (I refuse to let you download this as a standalone mp3)
I really don’t know how the universe could allow emoliner outfit 30 Seconds To Mars to cover Kanye’s Stronger. I really don’t. I don’t even like Kanye West, but I’d much rather listen to Stronger than this monstrosity.
As gesture towards bringing harmony once more to the cosmos, I give you both Kanye West’s Stronger…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Kanye West – Stronger from his album Graduation [ buy ]
… and the song that Stronger draws so heavily from: Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger from their album Discovery [ buy ]
I’m sorry for posting Jared Leto’s shameful cover but it is only through confronting such crimes against music, that steps can be taken to ensure such affronts never happen again.
A track has leaked off SebastiAn’s forthcoming sophomore album that remains yet-unnamed and quite possibly yet-unmastered, but my god is it a good’un. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Untitled.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Quite the return to form from the man that brought us the hypnotic-if-almost-undanceable Ross Ross Ross and some of the best remixes of this year.
For good measure, I should probably introduce you to Ross Ross Ross. Reader this is Ross Ross Ross, Ross Ross Ross this your reader. Play nice. Better yet, play it loud.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
SebastiAn – Ross Ross Ross from Ross Ross Ross EP [ buy ]
I first came across this gem when it opened Simian Mobile Disco’s New Rave Mix for NME Magazine. The mix was an absolute blinder that totally opened my ears to so many acts of last year (I know it seems weird to talk about last year’s acts like yesterday’s news), but the song that always brought me back was Ross Ross Ross. I’d never heard anything like it.
Hungry for more, I chased down anything touched with the oddly-capitalised “SebastiAn” and a slew of fancy remixes came out of the woodwork. Mylo’s Paris Four Hundred. The Rapture’s Get Myself Into It. Cut Copy’s Going Nowhere. Kelis’ Bossy. Standing head and shoulders above them all however was the still-blistering remix of Daft Punk’s Human After All.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Daft Punk – Human After All (SebastiAn Remix) from Human After All CD Single [ buy ]
Hat-tip to L&D for the live shot of SebastiAn and Kavinsky from their live set at The Prince in Melbourne back in the day. Best. Night. Ever.
We’ll be looking to rinse and repeat the experience when SebastiAn and Kavinsky open (among others) for Daft Punk at Never Ever Land in December.
Pnau are back with another little gem in the form of No More Violence. It isn’t quite the light and clean and fun ditty that is Wild Strawberries but it’s pretty good all the same.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Sure it takes a while to warm up but you’ve gotta love how it thumps like a bitch despite the oddly-chosen guitar and vocal tracks.
Check. It. Out.
Still. Waiting. For. That. Third. Album.
Hat-tip to the always excellent Disco Delicious for hooking us up with the track.
Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan has recently released his single Kingdom, the first from his soon-to-be-released album Hourglass.
Kingdom has been bundled with a fair few remixes by some well-known names, but the remix by Digitalism is by far the better one (well, of the ones I’ve heard: Digitalism and Booka Shade). Here, Kingdom comes out sounding so very very old school Depeche Mode (think middle period DM of the Violator and Songs Of Faith And Devotion-type). Sure we’re more than a little smitten with Digitalism here on JetPilot, but it is impossible to resist that unmistakable Digitalism sound.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Dave Gahan – Kingdom (Digitalism Remix) from CD single Kingdom [ buy ].
It really is a beautiful thing. Play it loud. I do.
For a taste of Kingdom in its original form, try the music video below.
This sounds so much better than his previous solo effort Paper Monsters. Like so much better.
I’m really looking forward to Hourglass coming out. Like really looking forward to it.
Cut Copy are about to head out on another tour of Australia and like last time they’re releasing another tasty tidbit from their anxiously-awaited sophomore effort In Ghost Colours. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you So Haunted.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Cut Copy – So Haunted from In Ghost Colours.
Hot.
I’m just not sure it’s quite as hot as their earlier release from In Ghost Colours, namely the incredible Hearts On Fire.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Cut Copy – Hearts On Fire from In Ghost Colours.
This song has been at the top of my iTunes most played list from the moment I got my grubby mitts on it. It is epic and sweeping and glorious and totally floats every boat in my harbour.
Try it, you’ll love it.
On the back of these two tracks, I’m really wondering why I’m not living in Australia for tours that see Cut Copy hitting the road with Damn Arms and Knightlife. Especially when Damn Arms come out with tracks like this…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Damn Arms – The Cormorant (Midnight Juggernauts Remix) from Home Wrecker CD Single [ buy ]
… while Knightlife kill the dancefloor with…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Knightlife – Ambobop from Knightlife A-Side [ buy ]
On the back of these two tracks, I’m really not sure I can wait until February for In Ghost Colours to finally come out.
Thankfully the wait won’t be so bad with Cut Copy appearing among others as support for Daft Punk at Never Ever Land in December. Can. Not. Wait.
How green should your eyes be right now? Very, is the answer I’m looking for people.
Unless of course you’re JetPilot, in which case our hearts will be on fire.
Friday 4 August 2006 marks a very dark day in music history, for this is when Jesse Keeler announced that the Canadian indie rock/synth duo Death From Above 1979 were officially splitting up.
I may have come to love DFA1979 late in their brief lifespan, but my entree was all the same thanks to a catchy ditty from Brazilian sextet Cansei De Ser Sexy. The song was Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above and intermingling the upbeat synths were bursts of bare drums and gritty guitars that instantly pricked up my ears and left me wondering “what was that?”. It wasn’t until I saw the video, that the chorus made sense as homage to DFA1979 (the elephant noses said it all).
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Cansei De Ser Sexy – Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above from the album CSS [ buy ]
Of the tracks on their studio album You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine the song Romantic Rights is the one that really excited me. It was urgent from the onset, moving along at such a pace I couldn’t help but be carried along. The bass guitar start it off with grit and anger before the drums kick in to propel it along even more forcefully, while Sebastien Grainger’s vocals soar above the noise in that high-pitched whine. There’s a youtube video of DFA1979 performing Romantic Rights on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, and Sebastien is pounding the drums so hard his arms give out halfway through the song and some other guy hops on to finish it off for him. Brilliant.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Death From Above 1979 – Romantic Rights from the album You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine [ buy ]
Fuck I love that song.
Fuck I miss DFA1979.
All good things come to an end and so it was with DFA1979. Since parting ways, Jesse Keeler and Sebastien Grainger seem to be pursuing the two genres whose combination proved so compelling in DFA1979: Jesse is riding the gritty electro rock wave as one half of MSTRKRFT, and Sebastien has gone downbeat indie with his support band Les Montagnes.
MSTRKRFT emerged soon enough to remix some of DFA1979′s tracks on almost-entirely-brilliant remix album Romance Bloody Romance : Remixes & B-Sides and have since gone on to release their own studio album The Looks. I don’t know that their album excited me much (certainly not as much as DFA1979 had), but the remixes they’ve done of Metric’s Monster Hospital, Wolfmother’s Woman and Justice’s D.A.N.C.E. have helped build a very solid reputation for creating some absolutely stonking club bangers. Although The Looks didn’t entirely float my boat, their remix of Street Justice is a song that rates fairly high on my iTunes, and for good reason too.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
MSTRKRFT – Street Justice (MSTRKRFT Remix) from the album Street Machine 12″ [ buy ]
In comparison to MSTRKRFT’s swift dominance of the dance charts, Sebastien seemed to disappear from sight. My first experiences of his solo work weren’t too good to be honest. I thought he’d gone all soft and folky, when I was hoping for something even vaguely similar to what MSTRKRFT was doing. Thankfully my apprehensions were proved unnecessary as song Are There Ways To Come Home? was released to what seems to be fairly wide appreciation. It’s a beautiful song. A hot song.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Sebastien Grainger – Are There Ways To Come Home?
I’m sorry if this comes across as complete fanboy geekery but DFA1979 are a band that came out with some fantastic songs and a sound that I haven’t been able to pick up in the bands that have since emerged to take their place in the dance rock space. That and I’m angry I missed out on seeing them live before they retired to Splitsville.
I’m all about the unfinished business.
