Well friends, the wait is over. After teasing audiences for months as the epic finale to his live sets, St. Lucia's "September" arrives today, available NOW on iTunes and Beatport. The biggest and baddest track in his increasingly amazing repertoire, it's an all-consuming dancefloor behemoth backed by some equally massive remixes from the likes of Alex Metric, Punks Jump Up, Leo Zero and dance music legend Neil McLellan. Alex Metric's got his remix - one of his best ever if you ask us - streaming over on his Soundcloud page, and you can download the Punks Jump Up remix for free from St. L's Facebook page. But with a track this ambitious and masterful, it's always going to be about the original. Don't take our word for it though, dive into it headfirst below and cop the full EP at iTunes HERE.
Since making their Manhattan debut at Popshop last March, Friends have well and truly blown up on both sides of the Atlantic, and they continue their ascension to the stars on a much-needed re-release of debut 7" "Friend Crush" this month. The single already won over our hearts and minds the first time around, and the remix package highlight from Leo Zero is the golden ticket to disco salvation, when the fever grabs hold of you with the vice-like grip of young love. As she sways and seduces, frontwoman Samantha Urbani holds out her hand and you just can't help but take it, as Monsieur Zero takes us deep into another disco galaxy. It's like the Flight Facilities remix that never was, all resplendent synths and groove train basslines, and it's available for free below from our dear friends at Lucky Number Music.
DOWNLOAD: "Friend Crush" (Leo Zero Remix) - Friends
As the year winds to a close, Patrick Wolf's comeback single "Time Of My Life" stands out as a late entry to our singles of the year race and the most exciting thing we've heard from the British troubadour since 2007's The Magic Position. While we can't share the original ahead of its December 6th release date, we've got the next best thing for you in the form of yet another immense Leo Zero remix. The single's an orchestral pop masterpiece and Leo Zero keeps its blueprint faithfully intact, transposing churning synths and a balearic bounce over the emotive piano stabs and lush strings arrangements of Wolf's original. Hot on the heels of the truly amazing Lissie remix we couldn't stop playing a few months back, Leo's latest takes Wolf's inspiring anthem of life after love to triumphant new heights and is just another reason he's one of the most sought after remixers in the game right now.
We've been fully on board the Lissie wagon ever since we experienced her literally AMAZING duet with Ellie Goulding at this year's Great Escape festival (phenomenal footage of which is viewable above), and her debut album Catch A Tiger and its lead single "When I'm Alone" were two of our favorite surprises of the summer. Leo Zero must have felt similarly, so keen was he to remix "When I'm Alone" that he approached Sony to let him have a go at the track long after the single campaign had run its course. We're glad he did, though, as the results are nothing short of magnificent. Not unlike the brilliant remix of Florence & The Machine's "Rabbit Heart" that he turned in last summer, his rework of "When I'm Alone" is a sprawling epic, an anthemic leviathan looming large in the mix for 8+ minutes of balearic bliss. Leo Zero we salute you, the world needs more remixes like this.
For a minute there we fell off the Florence & The Machine bandwagon. It all just got a bit much for us. Listening to her songs I kind of just wanted to be like "hey Flo, enough with all the yelling," and her I'm-so-karraazzeee persona was a bit too much for me to really buy into 100%. But damn, we've had her debut album Lungs for about six weeks now and I've got to be honest, I'm smitten as a kitten. Sure, a few of the songs are a bit samey and she's guilty of leaning on that booming voice of hers as a crutch at times to try to drum up excitement in a few otherwise unremarkable tunes, but some of these tracks are just killers. The jury's still out on whether anything after lead single "Rabbit Heart" will be able make any waves on the charts or radio, but album cuts like "Drumming", "Cosmic Love" and "My Boy Builds Coffins" are downright brilliant.
Bringing things back to "Rabbit Heart" though... what a track. An early contender for our single of the year, it's just unbelievable. We're predisposed to love anything Paul Epworth touches - and his production is very much what helps to elevate this single to impossible heights - but this is songwriting of the highest caliber, songwriting we didn't know Florence had in her back when we were doubting her ability to do much more than hit that same booming note she comes back to on every chorus. This is her most vulnerable anthem, as she looks the pressures of success dead in the eye and rises to the occasion on one of the most massive choruses of 2009: "this is a gift/it comes with a price/who is the lamb and who is the knife". Fame is the dream, but the music industry will eat you alive... "how quickly the glamour fades", indeed.
Beyond the track itself though, the actual campaign behind it is one of the year's most impressive as well, highlighted by the phenomenal remix package. Switch turns in his best mix in ages featuring a surprising guest verse from Brooklyn's Ninjasonik that somehow ends up working quite well, and Jamie T's Lionheart remix is absolutely massive. But it's the beautiful Leo Zero mix we've been cleared to put on offer for you below, a sprawling 8 minute epic of "La Ritournelle" pianos and majestic production flourishes, that ultimately rises above the rest as the most inspiring of the bunch. It's a slow-burning pop epic that's nowhere near as immediate as the efforts from Switch and Jamie but eventually proves itself to be one of the year's most impressive reworks. "Rabbit Heart" has the misfortune of being on the charts at the same time as anything Michael Jackson has ever touched, but all the more reason to show it some love. So yeah, it's safe to say we're back on the wagon. Lungs is out today and is well worth your hard earned shillings.
And finally, we'd be remiss not to mention the unofficial video for "Rabbit Heart" that adorns the top of this post, culled from footage of William Dieterle and Max Reinhardt's 1935 beautiful silver screen adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's one of the more intricate and delicately pieced together stock footage videos we've seen and a vast improvement on its rather mediocre official counterpart. Watch and marvel.
Well friends, the wait is over. After teasing audiences for months as the epic finale to his live sets, St. Lucia's "September" arrives today, available NOW on iTunes and Beatport. The biggest and baddest track in his increasingly amazing repertoire, it's an all-consuming dancefloor behemoth backed by some equally massive remixes from the likes of Alex Metric, Punks Jump Up, Leo Zero and dance music legend Neil McLellan. Alex Metric's got his remix - one of his best ever if you ask us - streaming over on his Soundcloud page, and you can download the Punks Jump Up remix for free from St. L's Facebook page. But with a track this ambitious and masterful, it's always going to be about the original. Don't take our word for it though, dive into it headfirst below and cop the full EP at iTunes HERE.
Since making their Manhattan debut at Popshop last March, 
