Comment allez-vous?

Sorry for the long absence. As penance, tonight's post features twice the usual number of mp3s:

TTC, "Codeine" (from Batards Sensibles)
TTC's new LP (Batards Sensibles, or Sensitive Bastards for those who don't parlez the Français) takes an interesting approach and moves closer to the mainstream by almost totally ditching "traditional" samples and scratches in favor of more electronic production, and it works astonishingly well. "Codeine" is one of the standout tracks, produced by Para One. Batards doesn't come out in the US for a few months, unfortunately, but you can bet I'll be picking it up when it does...
(buy Batards Sensibles)

Diplo, "Percão (feat.Pantera Os Danadinhos)" (from the "Diplo Rhythm" 12")
This is one of the three original tracks present in medley form as "Diplo Rhythm" on Florida and in full on the new Diplo Rhythm 12". "Percão" features Pantera Os Danadinhos, about whom I know absolutely nothing save that they're (she's? he's?) involved somehow in the Brazilian baile funk scene (for more, check out Diplo's superlative Favela On Blast mix CD).
(buy "Diplo Rhythm" 12"; buy Florida; buy Favela On Blast)

Pixeltan, "That's The Way I Like It" (from DFA Compilation #2 / the "Get Up/Say What" 12")
Picking a single selection from DFA's second compilation was difficult in the extreme- somehow three CDs doesn't seem enough. And despite the presence of excellent tracks from label mainstays (one rarity and a remix each from The Rapture and Black Dice, and no less than three from The Juan MacLean), the real standouts are the new signings and unknowns. Black Leotard Front's gleefully pervy "Casual Friday," two mixes of J.O.Y.'s "Sunplus," which comes off as a more rhythm-fixated Boredoms or OOIOO, Gavin Russom & Delia Gonzalez, whose two tracks smack of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Meddle-era Pink Floyd, and a new collaboration with Liquid Liquid (!) make it the best compilation yet released this year. "That's The Way I Like It" is one of the b-sides from Pixeltan's pounding "Get Up/Say What" single, and rides along this fucking amazing fuzzy bass skronk and some of the best drum work on the entire label (courtesy of Black Dice's Hisham Bharoocha). Yum.
(Buy DFA Compilation #2 or "Get Up/Say What" 12")

Luke Haines, "Oliver Twist" (from The Oliver Twist Manifesto)
Not as recent as tonight's other three songs, but a long-standing favorite of mine. Luke Haines, a relative unknown in the US, is one of the strangest and most wonderful of pop musicians, like some horrible genetic experiment to combine the DNA of Morrissey, Mark E. Smith, Guy Debord and a rabid bull terrier. Responsible for quite a lot of albums with the Auteurs, Black Box Recorder, and a one-off project as Baader Meinhof (about which I will be posting more later), 2001's The Oliver Twist Manifesto (Or, What's Wrong With Popular Culture) was his first proper solo album (after a half-vocal/half-score album for the disappointing film adaptation of B.S. Johnson's Christy Malry's Own Double-Entry), and is the perfect distillation of everything Haines. Obtuse metaphor, clever references, insinuating melodic hooks, and gallons of bile, but this time with startlingly modern pop production, even by 2004 standards. For more information, check out The Luke Haines Resource.
(buy The Oliver Twist Manifesto)