We know literally nothing about William Fitzsimmons or Pink Ganter other than that the union of the two in the latter's remix of Fitzsimmons' "So This Is Goodbye" is VERY GOOD. Enjoy.
We've shown no shortage of love to Clock Opera as of late, but how could we not when dude is just deserving it so hard with every move he makes. First he dropped jaws with his immaculate remix of Marina & The Diamonds, then last week he unveiled his brilliant new single "A Piece of String", and now he's back with yet another beautiful rework, this time for Brooklyn dreamweavers Au Revoir Simone. Employing similar techniques to those in play on his Marina remix, Clock keeps the verses largely intact and splices together words and sounds to reinvent the chorus entirely, as pulsating synths churn ominously beneath pristine piano notes and icy Sigur Ros-esque atmospherics.
Finland's Villa Nah first entered our lives last summer when "Ways To Be" wound up stuck on repeat on the office stereo for a solid month via their debut VN EP, yet somehow it never found it's way onto the blog. Fortunately after locking themselves in the studio for the past 10 months, the group are back with their debut album, Origin, and "Ways To Be" is back in our lives for good. Out now via Moshi Moshi on an AA-side 7" with the equally brilliant "Running On" on the flipside, the track is one of the best of the year, all synthesized 80's melancholy and timeless pop songwriting. Connoisseurs of haunting electronic pop, Villa Nah join the likes of Royksopp, The Knife and Kleerup as they evolve into viable heirs to the Scandinavian disco throne, and "Ways To Be" - already crowned Song of the Year at Finland's Dance Awards last month - is a massive first step in the right direction.
Our love for Mr. Little Jeans knows no bounds, so it's with great pleasure that we announce her debut single, the three-track Angel EP, out on Neon Gold next month. We already introduced you to the brilliance that is the EP's title track last month, but today we've got AA-side "Faking Gold" for your ears, another rollicking Yeah Yeah Yeahs-esque masterstroke from the pint-sized pop sensation. With it's soaring chorus, infinite hooks and droning electronic bassline, it's cut from the same cloth as it's A-side sister "Angel", and the two converge to form one of the fiercest one-two punches you'll hear on a record this year.
The Great Escape had no shortage of delights on offer last weekend in Brighton, but for us there was perhaps none greater than Clock Opera at Hector's House on the Saturday. We've been fans of the group from square one, having put on one of their first ever live shows last July and given them their first remix commission (and we all know how that one turned out), but even we weren't prepared for how far they'd come in the last 12 months.
Fyfe Dangerfield is one of our all-time favorite musicians and one of the nicest people we've ever met in this industry, so when he finally broke into the UK Top 10 last week with his breathtaking cover of Billy Joel's "She's Always A Woman" (as featured on this phenomenal John Lewis advert), we couldn't have been happier for him. Now at long last he's bringing his debut solo album Fly Yellow Moon over to the states for release on Downtown Records, preceded by a string of North American dates this week, launching at Joe's Pub in NYC and rounded off by dates in Philadelphia, Toronto and Los Angeles.