Electro Day-Glo

I get a lot of my quality music listening time in at work on my iPod. And as much as I love traditional songs in rock and pop and folk formats, sometimes the lyrics and abrupt start-stop dynamics can be distracting when you’re trying to focus on something important work-related. (Okay, you can stop laughing now.) Lately I’ve found myself drawn to a lot of ultra-vivid, repetitive electronic-type music that can turn the monotony of the work day into a pulsating, metronomic tick-tock of candy-coated deliciousness. Most of these songs tread along the same axis between hippie trippiness and polyester disco flash, fused together with common elements that could only be discerned by decades of separation from the actual events and unfettered access to a parent’s dusty old record collection.

Black Moth Super Rainbow – “Zodiac Girls” (Pony Version of 7″ Single)
(from Drippers)

Black Moth Super Rainbow are doing everything they legally can to get kids hooked on drugs short of actually handing out the drugs. (Although, who’s to say they don’t? I’ve never seen them in concert and it seems entirely within the realm of possibilities of the sort of thing they’d do to enhance the live experience. Just speculatin’.) Just take a listen to this. Like most everything they do, the music is heavy on psychedelic, old-school analog synthesizers and deliriously vocodered vocals that hover in the background like a UFO in a grainy, 8mm film reel. It’s a simple formula, but utterly convincing. Kids listen to this and think, “Wow, this sounds really cool. This sounds like drugs. I think I want to get my hands on some drugs and listen to this over again.” And that’s how it starts. Even the album art taps into their lysergic legacy, and no, I’m not just talking about the three sets of eyes and the three-dimensional hand holding the melting tomato. I’m talking about how they’re tapping into the popular myth of acid blotters being placed on kids’ stickers by making both the CD and vinyl versions of the Drippers EP in a scratch’n’sniff format. What’s next, Black Moth Super Rainbow, peel-off “Blue Star” tattoos?

Weird Tapes – “The Heavens”
(from Get Religion)

Weird Tapes have a lot in common with BMSR: they’re both from the Keystone State; they both shroud their identities in relative mystery; they both rely on disembodied vocal loops and repetitive, hypnotic rhythms for blissful results; and they both probably do a lot more drugs than I do. But other than that, the similarities end there. Weird Tapes’ music has more of a glossy disco kick to it, and as far as I can tell, they’ve released much less music. However, you can download the Get Religion EP for free here. I would recommend doing so. (Although, fair warning, the zShare link may be somewhat NSFW, in case advertisements displaying flashing images of ladies in thong underwear is not appropriate for your work environment. Click it at home to be safe.)

Memory Cassette – “Listen to the Vacuum”
(from Rewind While Sleeping)

Okay, this isn’t so much electronic as it is heavily proceessed, dreamy guitar pop that sounds like it could be an outtake from My Bloody Valentine’s Tremolo EP, but this newgaze group is somehow affiliated with Weird Tapes so I thought I’d include it in here anyway. (Plus, I first heard of both via the consistently excellent Gorilla vs. Bear.) You can download their gorgeous Rewind While Sleeping EP here. Also for free, also recommended. (Also possibly NSFW.)

And they move fast, it looks like they just released another free EP on Monday here.

Gang Gang Dance – “Princes”
(from Saint Dymphna)

Gang Gang also have a song on their new album called “Vacuum” that sounds like an extended, note-for-bended-note remake of My Bloody Valentine’s “Touched” (I wonder if the word “vacuum” is code for “We’re going to shamelessly rip off MBV” in the year 2008), but the rest of the ventures they make on Saint Dymphna are so diverse and dizzying that I can forgive them for so blatantly showing their hand on one track. “Princes,” for instance, starts with a flutter of faintly Arabic scales and space-age sound effects before East London grime MC Tinchy Stryder steps in and veers the song into an entirely new and unreal direction.

Passion Pit – “Sleepyhead”
(from Sleepyhead 7″)

Somehow I’ve managed to download this song multiple times from multiple sites, each time excited because I think it’s a new song. I don’t know if that’s a good sign because it means every time I listen to it I like it; or if it’s a bad sign because it’s too sparkly and shiny to leave a lasting impression. Maybe it’s like the old Pepsi vs. Coke blind taste test — the extra sugar tastes great on the first sip but becomes unpalatable over a whole can. Or maybe it’s just a real groovy song and my memory is shot. I’d like to think it’s the latter.

Glass Candy – “Rolling Down the Hills (Spring Demo)”
(from After Dark)

The Italians Do It Better After Dark compilation created a lot of buzz last year, but I live in the Show Me state so I think it’s understandable if I’m a little late to the party. The Portland duo Glass Candy is the improbable harbinger of 21st century Italo Disco to the hipster community at large, and while a lot of their tunes call to mind a “Rapture”-inflected Blondie, this track definitely calls to mind gold lamé leggings and soft fluorescent lighting and plush velvet cushions in the VIP room.

Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas – “En Dag I Mai”
(from Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas)

Space disco: the northern cousin of Italo disco? Basically, I wanted to talk about how beautiful and entrancing Lindstrøm’s new album Where You Go I Go Too is, but considering the best track on that album is nearly 30 minutes long, I figured you’d be better off if you just bought the whole thing. Think of it this way: if you like this song, multiply that feeling by six.

Giorgio Moroder – “From Here To Eternity”
(from From Here To Eternity)

Where it all began?