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Thought this might put a smile on your face. If the track doesn't, the clip may well ; )

Make The Girl Dance "Baby Baby Baby" ( official video )
by placeblancherec

Rye Rye- Bang (feat. M.I.A.)

From the 'Fast & Furious' movie soundtrack, the brilliant track 'Bang', by Baltimore artist Rye Rye, who is the first act signed to M.I.A.'s record label N.E.E.T.

Love the gritty, urban feel of this tune and love, love, love the dancing! This is such a Partyzone track and vid. Enjoy!

N.A.S.A. - A Volta (feat. Sizzla, Amanda Blank, & Lovefoxxx)

Even though this promo is incredibly violent, I do like it. It's like a bunch of dolls playing out some kind of Tarantino movie.

Directed by Logan and taken of the album 'Spirit of Apollo'

Apparently, the Spanish that's spoken in the clip is directly translated from English and makes no sense at all (that's what I've been told anyway). Very funny/strange.

Don't let kids watch this!

Röyksopp's latest release 'Happy Up Here'

This is the first release of the forthcoming 'Junior' album by the Norwegian electronic/dance music duo Röyksopp. The album will be out on the 23rd of March and- if this track is anything to go by- it's gonna be (as James Hyman would say ; ) the rinse! This track is very approapriately named 'Happy up here' & it does put a smile on my face. I will even go as far as saying that it's my favorite Röyksopp track so far. I'm looking forward to the rest of the new material.

Pussycat dolls, Jai Ho (from Slumdog Millionaire)

It has been great to hear that the child actors from the movie Slumdog Millionaire have received a heroes' welcome back in Mumbai when they returned from their Oscars adventure in LA (where the movie won 8 awards)

This is especially touching as the movie received such critisism to start with in India, with many people there taking offense with the movie's name.

Two of the child actors have now even been given free housing by the local government, as they were still living in slum conditions, with one of the actor's family living under a tarpaulin by the side of a busy road.

So the story of the movie has now become a reality, in a way. As the film is a rags-to-riches story about the winner of game show Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.

These child actors will now all receive an education too. Isn't that great? Of course, this is the kind of stuff that is close to my heart as I spent years trying to get disadvantaged kids in Belize an education. So anyway...this kinda stuff makes me happy. I just wished that all children in the world would be fortunate enough to live in a decent, clean and safe environment and would be able to attend school. But at least, these are a few more kids with a better chance of a possitive future.

Here's a track of the movie:

Oasis' new video 'Falling down'

Very odd vid, directed by WIZ. I kept waiting for something to happen in it, but nothing did. Okay, it gets revealed that the woman in the clip is royalty and that the Oasis boys (rebels that they are ; ) shun her. But that's about all. Not WIZ's best work.

I like the Oasis/Beatles look and Liam's usual little bounce at the end of one shot is kinda cute too (oh, the things we girls notice ; )

Anyway, it's the third single of their 'Dig out your soul' album. In stores now.

Peter Bjorn and John, 'Nothing to worry about'

What a good tune and marvelous vid, with some crazy asian rocker dudes! I get the feeling that this is genuine too. At least, I assume that this really is a group that meets in town on their bikes and then do some weird dancing together. Wonderfully bizarre.

And I love that Kanye West was blogging about this track too and that he was bigging it up!

It looks like the Swedish popsters Peter Bjorn and John are gonna do well with this.

Daniel Merriweather, Change

Daniel Merriweather...you may be more familiar with this man's voice than with his name as he has been doing backing vocals on tracks by Mark Ronson and others in the past, but now he's ready to show himself to the world with his own album, which will be out in April 2009. To give us all a taster of what's to come, here's the first single off the album; 'Change' (and a mighty fine taster it is too ; )

My only criticism to Daniel is the fact that he flaps his hands around like he is some kind of player or black rap star. To me that always looks silly on white boys (unless your name is Eminem, then you are forgiven) Great voice though!

2009 remix of Storm's 'Time to burn'

Big up to the power and interconnectedness of the Internet! I blogged about the 2009 remake of ‘King of my castle’ and got a personal ‘thank you’ note through MySpace from the man responsible for the remix, Rowald Styen.

And now he has contacted me again to tell me about his latest adventure, a 2009 remix of Storm’s ‘Time to burn’.

As I watched the Utube clip, I got so bloody excited. I try not to swear these days (all part of becoming a mum, I guess ; ) but throughout hearing the tune, I couldn’t stop myself from saying: ‘F*****g hell...F*****g hell’, whilst grinning from ear to ear.

This is the kind of track that can always re-ignite my passion for dance music. As I hear it, I am transported back into a club, hands in the air, shaking my head in disbelieve at the giganticness of this tune. Big up! Of course, the original was already fantastic and gigantic, but I always found that there were a few moments where the track crossed from being accessible to being a bit cheesy and even other mixes that have come out since have not been able to remove that occassionally cheesy feel. Rowald Steyn, in my opinion, is the first person who’s managed to do that.

I am also happy to hear Mark Spoon’s legacy carried forward. I always worried for him and his wild partying ways and, sadly enough, it was a fear that turned out not to be unfounded. He died of a suspected heart attack in 2006. Rest in my peace, my friend!

Mark Spoon, by the way, was at the heart of my infamous ‘wandering around the streets of Berlin in a dressing gown’ incident. I’m not sure if I have ever shared that story yet. It’s a bit of a mad one.

Anyway, check out this 2009 mix of ‘Time to burn’...

A sucker for your sound, I Monster

What an original promo! Done by New York-based director Mike Ritchie. The single 'Sucker for your sound' has just been released (17th of Jan) and is available on 7" vinyl and download format through the Twins of Evil label.

The I Monster website is brilliant too. Go check it out!

Hallelujah! Christmas number 1 and 2

In the UK there is always this big hooha about who will be 'the Christmas number one'. This year it is the beautiful Leonard Cohen track of the very appropriate name 'Hallelujah' (which some people will know as 'the Shrek song', strangely enough)

Not only is it number one though, but also number two. The version that is topping the charts is the version from Alexandra Burke, the winner of this year's X-Factor. Whilst the number two spot is held by the 1994 Jeff Buckley version of the song. I have always been a fan of the Jeff Buckley version. It's like the raw emotion is dripping off that one. So haunting and so beautiful.

I once had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Buckley at Glastonbury festival and- like everyone else- his strange and untimely death came as a huge shock to me. He drowned in 1997 at the age of 30. The world lost a great and honest talent on that sad day. But I'm thrilled to see that a new generation of music lovers is discovering Jeff Buckley's music again.

Alexandra's version of the track is good too & with a performance like that, how could she not win the competition?




Sadly enough, they wouldn't let me embed the Jeff Buckley version. You actually will have to go to Utube to watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKnxmkOAj88

Merry Christmas everyone!

Is Coldplay's 'Viva la Vida' a rip-off?

Thanks to James Hyman for forwarding me this Utube link. Pretty convincing stuff, I'm afraid. So my bet is that this will cost Coldplay a lot of money as Viva la Vida does sound almost exactly like Joe Satriani's 'If I could fly'.



On the other hand, alternative band Creaky board also accused Coldplay of ripping off parts of Viva la vida from their track 'Songs I didn't write' (that title sounds almost like a piss-take of the situation, doesn't it?)

Creaky Boards later retracted the accusations and now speculate that both songs may have been inspired by the video game The Legend of Zelda (do you think they were given something to retract their claim?)

Click here to hear the comparison between those & more 'songs that sound like other songs'.

I actually believe that people do this stuff by accident. They start humming a melody they have heard somewhere, somehow & they think it's their own idea. It just has this 'familiar feel' to it (which is normally a good thing when you write a song). And- even when they aren't 100% sure that is an original idea- when they run it by other people and ask them if they've ever heard it before, those people all say no. Because the original is quite obscure. So, before you know it, you've ripped someone off. When you rip someone off knowingly, you make enough little changes to your song so no one can sue you (something Noel Galagher, for instance, is a star at ; )

Please tell me your verdict. Guilty or not?

Still available as free download: the new Prodigy single!

Invaders must die is the name of the new album from the Prodigy and the title track will be available as a free download from their site for a few more days. Don't miss it!

I have to admit, for a while I felt like Liam had 'lost himself' somehow and I wasn't as crazy about the stuff he had done in the last few years (I also have to admit that I haven't heard everything he has done in these last years. Maybe I missed a gem somewhere)

But anyway, if he did lose himself for while, he's back now! And so are the Prodigy! What a top tune. Can't wait to hear to hear the whole album. This is what they are all about. Gritty, dark, intense dance music that just blows your head off. And I can already imagine them onstage with this track.

Having seen thousands of live performances over the years, I think that Prodigy are the best live act ever!!!!! And- of course- also the best dance act ever!!! (anyone disagree with me on that one?)

Good to have you back, old Braintree posse.



Obviously, I have many good memories of the Prodigy as I used to spend a lot of time with them. I'll share some of my favorites in the coming days.

Grace Jones

Steve Blame was the one who introduced me to Grace Jones. He has always surrounded himself with all these odd-ball people. When he used to throw these crazy birthday parties (turning 37 1/2, etc.) in Greece, we would hang out with Nina Haagen and her fake dog, La Camilla- the woman with the big lips from 'Army of lovers'- who would take about 6 hours getting her make-up done, Adamski- who broke his leg on one of the trips and hobbled along for the rest of it- plus many others. It was always pure insanity.

So I was used to meeting strange people through Steve and I had heard his stories about Grace Jones. Still, when I met her, she was even more weird and scary than I ever could have imagined.

She walked up to Steve, myself and my mother (I used to take my mum along to everything) through this dark nightclub. She kissed Steve and then turned to me. Steve said: 'Grace, this is Simone Angel'. I held my hand out to shake hers, but she just stared at me and- instead of shaking my hand- squeezed both my boobs. It was the weirdest thing. It wasn't a joke, she remained dead serious. It just seemed to be the way she greeted new people. My mum was shocked too. Yet neither of us had the guts to react to her. She really was frightening. I just pretended that I found the way she greeted me totally normal, I didn't know what else to do.

Later on that evening, she followed me into the toilets & handed me a little plastic flashing love heart. She smiled at me and then just walked away. And that was that. Very odd.

Anyway, I find it funny how she has managed to make such a come-back. Good on her, that strange, ageless, alien woman.

Here's her clip for Corporate Cannibal.

Latest BPA release: Seattle ft.Emmy the Great

I want to love this track, but I don't. I have always been a huge fan of Norman Cook's work and love some of the stuff that Emmy the Great has done, but this track just doesn't do it for me. Maybe I should say 'yet'. Maybe it will grow on me.

Of course, with the US election going on right now (no results in yet whilst I am writing this), the song is well-timed. And if Obama wins and the world feels optimistic again about the future of America, it will be even more fitting. We will have to wait and see.

Personally, I am looking forward to the general release of the track 'He's Frank' from BPA, featuring Iggy Pop. Now that's a good tune. I wonder if it will ever be released as a single.

Wamdue project, King of my castle 2009

Another club classic gets the remake. This time it's the old Stricly Rythm smash, 'King of my castle' by 'Wamdue project'.

DJ/Producer Rowald Steyn has done his magic on the track this time. It was, of course, brilliant to begin with and sounds great in it's 2009 jacket. Could it follow in the footsteps of Robin S. and become another number one hit?

Some silly trivia for you...King of my castle was in the UK charts in 1999 and- in that year- was the track with the longest name in which none of the letters were repeated (unbelievable what people keep track off)

Thanks to Eurodance blog for pointing me towards the Armada Music site. I looked it up after seeing the clip of Dobenbeck on there (nice summery tune...fits my tropical lifestyle)

Anyway, here's 'King of my castle 2009'

Chase & Status ft. plan B, Pieces

I know I am late with this one as it is number one in the UK dance chart. But I gathered that many readers of this blog are from outside of the UK, so I'd like to share it anyhow. This track already blows my mind when I listen to it at home, so I can imagine the impact it would have when you hear it booming out in a club. F*****g brilliant!

Cage the elephant, the re-leased version of 'In one ear'

Jees, can you imagine living in a place called Bowling Green? Well, it really exists. It's in Kentucky and it's where the band Cage the Eelphant are from. After the modest success they had 'Aint no rest for the wicked', they have decided to re-release their first single 'In one ear' and have added a very 'Basket case' promo to it. (Greenday)

Giant Jr. versus Eartha Kitt, I want to be evil

This is a huge club track in the UK right now. The marvelous 'I want to be evil' from Giant Jr. I'm not quite sure who Giant Jr. actually is/are. Does anyone have any information or pictures of them apart from barbie and ken dolls?

There's some great mixes of this track floating around too. Enjoy!

Kanye West's latest vid: 'Good Morning'

Now, I am not a great rap fan, but I can definitelly appreciate Kanye West's music. It's the kind of rap that appeals to a larger audience because of the catchy hooks & the cool vids that go with them. Like this one for his new single 'Good Morning'. Taken off his third studio album 'Graduation'.

The video was created by the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and the bear is meant to be Kanye himself....