All right, summer classes are over, I've finally reinstated my blogroll (drop me a line if I left you out, I'm working from memory here), and most importantly, there is a crazy amount of good music coming out later this year: new Boards of Canada and Depeche Mode (on the same day, even), more DFA (a Delia & Gavin LP and Black Dice's best album to date), Sigur Ros, new Broadcast and Jackson's debut album on Warp, Matthew Dear's Suckfish full-length as Audion, DJ Koze's Kosi Comes Around, Liars, Goldfrapp, Dangerdoom... my work is cut out for me. However, those are just the year's big releases, the ones whose release dates I mark on my calendar and camp outside the record store with a pair of binoculars and a month's supply of jerky to wait for. And as some albums this year have shown (*cough* *cough*), you can't always count on them to pull through. This week I have one promising new signing, one sadly overlooked but fantastic album, and a weird little gem from 2003.



Lo-Fi-Fnk, "Wake Up" (from the Change Channel 7")

Lo-Fi-Fnk are the latest signing to Moshi Moshi, home to Hot Chip and Architecture in Helsinki. "Wake Up" from their debut single combines the gloriously cheap keyboard sounds of the former with the ebullient pop of the latter, with a surprising degree of success.

Full disclosure fine print happy funtime action love GO: this digital copy is ripped from Sumosonic #40- you've probably seen their ads either online or in print somewhere, but in case you haven't, it's a monthly sampler of new music from indie labels. Costs just five bucks a month, and even if I weren't getting it for free (thanks, guys) I would still be pretty damn happy about it- for example, #40 also has new stuff from the Russian Futurists and Chok Rock, the Cadence Weapon mix of Lady Sovereign, and a great Chicken Lips disco mix of Hard Fi. You can get a free copy of the latest month's disc here. In place of this gigantic chunk of text, future songs taken from Sumosonic comps will have a cute lil' sumo guy next to them. Click the sumo guy, go to their site, get a CD (or don't). JOIN US.



France Copland, "Rutgerhauer Song" (from the Dirty Diamonds compilation on Diamondtraxx)

This is...bizarre. A super rough'n'glitchy take on Vangelis' end title music from Blade Runner, with samples from Roy Batty's dying speech. Cheesy as hell, but far, far greater than anything so obviously cliched has a right to be. Which brings up an interesting question: which is worse, techno sampling Blade Runner or industrial and EBM songs sampling Hellraiser?. Anyway, it's a fitting musical tribute to the PURE DISTILLED TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME that is Rutger Hauer. Sigh. He's so dreeeamy. Anyway, this comes from Dirty Diamonds, a compilation on Benjamin Diamond's label Diamondtraxx and put together by D-I-R-T-Y Sound System (may be NSFW). Check them out, they have some great interviews, mixes and videos.



Mutamassik, "Immigrants On Course" (from the Masri Mokkassar: Definitive Works compilation on Sound-Ink

"Immigrants On Course" is one of the new tracks on Mutamassik's career-summation/new album Masri Mokkassar, and like the other tracks it's a pounding fusion of Middle Eastern forms and instruments with deft scratching and junglist stylings. Longtime readers (yes, all three of you!) may remember Mutamassik's "Gulf Rock Mix" as one of the first tracks posted here over a year ago. "Immigrants On Course" is more low-key and brooding, but equally nasty. Get the album here or straight from the label.

EDIT The ever-dependable Music For Robots have a fantastic exclusive- a new mixtape from Simian Mobile Disco.