Classix Nouveaux?

As I gather myself to go and meet up with Hils, Crog, Madam Arcati [who is heading from work] and Mother to go and gawp at a cornucopia of the late HM The Queen's outfits over the decades of her long life, I thought I would leave you, dear reader, with another selection of "newer" choons that have caught my ear of late...

First up, the very welcome - and unexpected - return of an old fave from the 1990s:

Natalie Imbruglia - Just Drive

Here's someone who owes a great musical debt to another decade altogether - the '80s. Shades of Depeche Mode, methinks:

A Thousand Mad Things - Truth You Seek

Now, this is a queen who just adores his dressing up box (and Troye Sivan, too, from the sound of it):

Saint Micah - The Grind

MySpace's most successful "discovery" is back - with a darker tone than her previous hits, too. It takes a couple of listens, but I like it:

Charli xcx - Camera

Our Princess returns, in a most surprising collaboration, indeed. More surprising was that this appearance, and this entire video, was shot just down the road from us in Alexandra Palace - and we didn't know... Dammit!

Snow Patrol & Kylie Minogue - These Alarms

I was fully expecting Kylie to occupy the "saving the best to last" slot - and then I watched/heard this! It's simply faboo:

Becky Hill - What Do I Have To Do?

As ever, I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Just a part of modern times

We're well overdue methinks, dear reader, another little selection of some of the "newer" choons that have caught my ear of late - before everything turns to shit with the coming tsunami of Xmas cash-ins...

A fitting way to start is with something that couldn't be more diametrically opposed to tinsel, sleigh-bells, faux-jollity and mawkish sentimentality if it tried! Who would ever have thought that a legendary member of that most decadent of bands Velvet Underground and a contemporary pop-princess would ever have collaborated on something as utterly breath-taking, gothic and sinister as this?

Charli xcx ft John Cale - House

Phew. I think we should break the mood, at least a little bit, with a poignant one - the Soft Cell cover of an old Giorgio Moroder choon, that turned out to be the very last single released before Dave Ball's premature death:

Soft Cell - First Hand Experience in Second Hand Love

Speaking of 80s/90s troupers, this:

Andy Bell and Tim Rice-Oxley [Keane] - The Chance Won't Come Again

Now for something completely different! [This album's actually on my Amazon wish-list] Abba as you never heard them before:

Lautten Compagney feat. Asya Fateyeva - Mamma Mia (arr. for Baroque Ensemble and Saxophone by Bo Wiget) [from Dancing Queen - Rameau meets ABBA]

The wonderful Mr Bill McClintock does it again!

Peter Gabriel vs Sly & the Family Stone - Thank You (Falettinme Be Your Sledgehammer) [McClintock mash-up]

And, saving the best till last - I LOVE THIS!

MIKA - Modern Times

As ever, dear reader, let me know your thoughts...

Maniacal cackling on the wind

A stoical man gazing at the clouds has grimly warned that a hen party is approaching.

Sitting in his rocking chair, old timer Norman Steele has predicted that dozens of drunken women will soon be heading in his direction so everyone should hunker down before it strikes.

Steele, who has not been the same since the hen do of 2012, said: “They’re doing pre-drinks in an Airbnb right now, but they’re a-comin’. They’re a-comin’.

“If you listen closely, you can hear their maniacal cackling on the wind. Within the hour they’ll start blaring "Single Ladies" and "Wannabe", and that’s when the nightmare truly begins.

“First you’ll see their penis-shaped deely-boppers on the horizon as they stagger from one cocktail bar to the other. Then they’ll rip through the streets in a flurry of personalised sashes, wreaking havoc on traffic and pedestrians alike. Nobody will be safe.

“You can only tell the strength of a hen party by the damage it leaves in its wake, but this one feels like a biggie. Come the morning, expect to see hundreds of shattered pitchers and the bodies of broken waiting staff littering the pavement.

“I’m off to hide in my hen party cellar, and I suggest you do the same. May God have mercy on us all.”

The Daily Mash

Of course.

---

On a possibly similar note, another of the "blasts from the past" that we sang along to as the Gay Pride parade passed by on Saturday was this one [which could quite easily also be mistaken for a "hen party classic"]:

Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX - I Love It

I love it! Indeed.

You're so damn hard to please, we gotta kill this switch

The atmosphere in work is simply delightful at the moment, as one might imagine when so many people are weighing-up their options, and worrying about whether they are likely to remain in a job at the end of this "restructure consultation". To add insult to injury, some lucky bastard in the UK scooped the £121 million jackpot in the Euromillions lottery this week - and it wasn't me!!

Hey ho. Here's a song for my mood:

Icona Pop (feat. Charli XCX) - I Love It

I got this feeling on the summer day when you were gone.
I crashed my car into the bridge. I watched, I let it burn.
I threw your shit into a bag and pushed it down the stairs.
I crashed my car into the bridge.

I don't care, I love it.
I don't care.

You're on a different road, I'm in the Milky Way
You want me down on earth, but I am up in space
You're so damn hard to please, we gotta kill this switch
You're from the 70s, but I'm a 90's bitch

I love it!
I love it!

Ah... That's better.

Levimuusika

I am way, way overdue sharing another selection of the newer music that I have located via the wonder of the interweb recently. And so without further ado, and in the words of the immortal Ida Barr, let's "pump up the wireless!"

Always sassy, always welcome - house favourite Luciana is back again, continuing her "world domination tour" with another new stomper - U B The Bass. Magnificently odd video, too!

Luciana - U B The Bass

Keeping up the beats, here's the artist known as Warren Nomi (no relation to the fantabulosa Klaus Nomi, to my knowledge), and his new disco-tinged dancefloor number The Rush:

Warren Nomi - The Rush

He also sometimes goes by the name "Nomi Madness", and among his more arty projects is a rather fabulous video montage for this song, French Kisses - a slice of camp genius!

Nomi Madness - French Kisses

The artist occasionally known as Bimbo Boy, Dennis Alexis Hellström has recently formed a new musical outfit called Eurotix. Among the several tracks they have so far is this rather excellent track, Decadence. Very 80s!



Rather catchy indeed is the new collaboration between Armand Deluxe and a previously-featured artist here at Dolores Delargo Towers SirPaul - Touch Me is released on 21st April:

SirPaul - Touch Me

"You love the 70s but I'm a 90s bitch!" go the lyrics. To me, however, the newly released single (new for the UK, at least) by Icona Pop (featuring another vocalist we have featured here before, Charli XCX) sounds more than reminiscent of Plastic Bertrand's Ça Plane Pour Moi. No bad thing, of course - I Love It:

Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX - I Love It

To compare and contrast, here's Mr Bertrand himself (well, not quite - the vocals were actually performed by the record's producer Lou Deprijck) from 1978:

Plastic Bertrand - Ça Plane Pour Moi

Ready for some old-school gay porn? Well, who am I to refuse? - here's the Tom of Finland-inspired video by former-pornstar-turned-singer Mr Colton Ford for his new single Let Me Live Again, featuring at least one of Mr Ford's real-life boyfriends. The song itself is rather catchy and is apparently doing well in the US dance charts...

Colton Ford - Let Me Live Again

While we're at it, it's time for a bit of smutty kitsch drag methinks... Eternal thanks to the lovely Henry at Barbarella's Galaxy once again for this one - it's Willam Belli, Detox and Vicky Vox with their soon-to-be-a-classic Boy Is A Bottom:

Willam Belli, Detox and Vicky Vox - Boy is a Bottom

And finally, the totty! Part protest song (against the anti-gay laws that are creeping in across Eastern Europe), part-porno video, our favourite houseboys Kazaky are back with their Depeche Mode influenced new song Crazy Law. Wiggle it, boys!

Kazaky - Crazy Law

As always, enjoy, dears - and be sure to let me know what you think...

Pop potpourri

The overall verdict on 2012's music offerings was "generally uninspiring". I did find some plums, and indeed my end-of-year list has some goodies, but as music years go, it was hardly a brilliant vintage.

So let us keep our fingers crossed for this New Year. It has started well - very well indeed! - with the resurgence of the amazing David Bowie. I hope 2013 brings some more new classics to enervate us - although, judging by the dire BBC "Sound of 2013" selection, my optimism may be premature...

Here's the first showcase of the year of some of the newer music that has tweaked my ear.

Let's start mellow, with Canadian indie dreamer (and, apparently, opera singer, though you'd never guess it) Rachel Zeffira and her new - and very palatable, with its late-night club vibe - single Here On In:

Rachel Zeffira - Here On In

From the sublime to... Miss Vandana Jain, Brooklyn-based graphic designer turned experimental pop performer. With shades of Siouxsie, or maybe Cocteau Twins, here's Men With Sticks (from her new EP Vandamner):

Vandana - Men With Sticks

With one of the most powerful voices I have heard for a while, Miss Bebe Black's new track Deathwish (from her new EP of the same name) is just ruddy marvellous!

Bebe Black - Deathwish

With one half being from the ultimate Froggie synth-pop band Air and the other from New York cool kids New Young Pony Club, the duo Tomorrow's World (named after the 70s TV science programme, no less!) have good pedigree. If the slinky atmospherics of So Long My Love are anything to go by, I think we're going to like them:

Tomorrow's World - So Long My Love

Here's a catchy little number from the sassy lady calling herself Charli XCX - last featured here with the wonderful Nuclear Seasons in November 2011 - it's her new single You (Ha Ha Ha):

Charli XCX - You (Ha Ha Ha)

The video for the new single I Could Be The One by Avicii vs Nicky Romero is just brilliant, and sums up a set of feelings we know all too well, as we count down the seconds till (our first holiday for two years) Spain in February! The song's good, too...

Avicii vs Nicky Romero - I Could Be The One

And finally - when I said "start as we mean to go on" in the New Year with Fred Astaire, you knew of course, dear reader, I didn't necessarily mean it... Here, indeed, is another example of another way we could celebrate 2013 - with an interesting and tasteful exploration of the artistic side of gay popular movies (of course). It's fab, it's funny, it's raunchy, it's extremely NSFW - it's Killian Wells (featuring - ahem! - talented British Canadian porn star Brent Everett) and STRFKR [that's text-speak for "Star Fucker", peeps]!

Killian Wells - STRFKR

Whew!

As ever, I hope you enjoy this little pot-pourri - let me know what you think!

Another dose of muzak...

This week, it hasn't just rained (literally) but it's poured - not only did the fearsome virus attack almost leave us stranded without a PC but today (yet again) Virgin Media left us without the interwebs for hours...

Still, better late than never - here's the latest selection of more recent choons I have selected for your delectation, dear reader.

Launching the selection in style is yet another Ukrainian wannabee diva - Kamaliya, with an incredibly OTT camp video for her new single (her first in English, apparently) Crazy in My Heart. Mike over at Pop Trash Addicts loves it, and I love it too...

Kamaliya - Crazy in My Heart

This month we welcome back that house favourite eccentric Miss Róisín Murphy, who seems to be heading for the dancefloors with her latest single Simulation (which is a collaboration with a mystery producer from the north of England, apparently - whoever that might be):

Róisín Murphy - Simulation

Speaking of welcome returns to eccentric artists, we haven't heard from the completely bonkers Mr Patrick Wolf for a while! And here he is, in fine Gothic form, with his latest - Together:

Patrick Wolf - Together

Back to the dancefloors - well, perhaps not to a "Ritzy" near you - here's a rather fab collaboration between the Swedish DJ Adrian Lux and UK electro-indie types The Good Natured. They're Alive:

Adrian Lux feat The Good Natured - Alive

On a bit more of a retro 80s kick is Charli XCX with the rather atmospheric Nuclear Seasons:

Charli XCX - Nuclear Seasons

And finally, rapidly becoming a bit of a favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers are the magnificently camp Azari & III, here with their brilliant Reckless With Your Love:

Azari & III - Reckless With Your Love

As ever, enjoy!