sirusimo (aka Moritz Friedrich) is an awesome little DJ from Berlin. Fresh from remixing fellow electroheads Boys Noize (also from Germany) sirusimo is a creation of various samples and beats to bring you some really addictive tunes. The track 'High Together' recently appeared on the latest Kitsune Maison Compilation.

Sadly though I felt zed album was a bit of a sad let down compared to the previous versions which has gone more from electro into a slightly more 'alternative' rock feel. The use of 'High Together' which in itself is a wonderful track doesn't do sirusimo justice and now I am completely addicted to his other work, namely the superb "Diskosau"

The EP "The Invited Guest" is available somewhere on the internet (namely here) and if that doesn't get your fancy then check out the remix of fellow German DJ Ben Mono's "Perfection" which is right below;

Currently I have accidentally stumbled upon the wonderfully titled Cinnamon Chasers.

I was drawn initially to the wonderful video produced for the track 'Luv Delux' and then the found myself to download the album onto my new 160GB ipod (shameless self plug for a Mac owner like myself.) Wasn't disappointed at all, the album is wonderfully crafted a lovely listen on the morning commutes back and forth from home to campus. I advise you take a listen, to watch the amazing video below and then download their album entitled "A Million Miles from Home."



Its creativity and sounds like this that makes me really excited for the future of music.

Yes its been overused by the lovable internet community and those going to or living in Japan. But I don't care. I remember watching this the first time it came out as a BBC three launch programme (!) and laughed myself silly.

So altogether now;

We'll I've been to a lot places in this big ol' world but I've never seen a place like this,

The buildings are kinda tall and the people are kinda small
And everybody eats a lot of fish

The streets are pretty busy, it can make you awful dizzy
When you're trying to find your way around

So here's a little rhyme, You can use it all the time
When you're lost in Tokyo town

[※ Wakarimashita
Wakarimasen
Wakarimasu ka?

Ah, doko desu ka?
Itsu desu ka
Nani desu ka?]

Its a fascinating city but it looks a little shitty
When its raining and its grey

When the sun's gone sinking and the lights are all a blinking
And baby it looks okay

Well they say its futuristic but its also innovistic
Its a contradictory place

When I'm walking through Shibuya, feel like singing Hallelujah
Even though theres limited space

※ Repeat

Omotesando!
Ikebukuro!
Shinjuku!
Harajuku!
Meguro!
Hibiya!
Roppongi!
Ginza!
Ebisu!
Mita!
Ueno!
Akebanebashi!

※ Repeat

Suimiiiiiimaaaaasseeeeeen!

Please follow these instructions, if you are feeling sad, lonely, depressed or isolated;

1. Turn the volume and bass up on your speakers as loud as you can.

2. Prepare some vodka and mixer ready to drink. Put in a whiskey glass for effect. Get lots of ice too.

3. If possible find a nice girl to dance with, its okay to dance on your own though. We all know we are all sad lonely bastards on the internet.

4. Play the following video

5. Dance

6. If anyone asks you to turn it down. Tell them to shut the fuck up and dance.

Its fair to say Mstrkrft have saved my life in many ways. I'm torn twisted by the inactivity of this curious little girl in Japan - who said these wonderful things about missing me and now can't even be bothered to let me know she is okay after 3 earthquakes in a week in Japan. Oh well. At least I'll always have Mstrkrft. They'll never abandon me. Japan or no Japan.

.. and yet the world keeps on turning. Yes it just keeps on turning.

Still no Certificate of Eligibility (*grumble* *grumble*) If it doesn't arrive tomorrow, I'm going to go medieval and send off some e-mails.

So to liven up my mood a little here's another one of my favourite little niche bands at the minute. The utterly pick up and listen: "Two Door Cinema Club"

My favourite new sound at the minute is coming from a fantastic little trio called 'We Have Band' - sounds like a kitsch English punk band with a love of Japlish, but sadly its not, its something a bit more hopeful for my future Ipod playlist.

I thought the comparisons with 'Hot Chip' are a little off the mark, as they certainly have their own unique little identity to them. I can't quite put my mark on where on the electro-rock scale they fall and if I was hastily drawn into making a definition, they would probably fall flat into the centre of 'electro-rock band' or 'rock-electro-band'.

I can't think of too many bands that are happy to throw in bizarre Russian lyrics into their songs (as was the case with the brilliant 'Time After Time' which featured the vocals of Yulia B. and the remixing of Pavel Khvaleev.)

The killer off their upcoming eponymous album (due to be released on the 15th of September) is the amazing 'Hear it in the Cans' which just about sums up the complex dilemma of this rock-electro scaling system in the music industry today. Finally, the song 'Oh!' - exactly as it sounds, will leave you with a feeling of being chased down a large spiral staircase by a floating ghost to this haunting yet subtle melody.

The icing on the cake is their fantastic dub remix of Bloc Party's Halo (kudos to Cannibal Cheerleader.)

The Mercury Music Prize nominations are out today.

I'm really happy that Bat for Lashes got some recognition, as I'm a big fan of her work. Her music reminds me of the Chromatics, which isn't exactly a bad thing at all. She'll also be appearing in Sheffield in October.

Bat for Lashes - Daniel

Friendly Fires, I'm not such a great fan of, although I certainly don't hate their stuff. I've heard a few of their songs remixed, which do sound a lot better than the originals. Their stuff has seemingly been around for ages (or maybe that's just me.)

Kasabian are probably the biggest name out of the list. And they have been around for ages. "West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum" is their third studio album after their quite disappointing 2nd album "Empire". I think the new album is a welcome return to their old stuff which is kinda good.





My vote is however torn between two artists:

The Invisible and La Roux.

The Invisible are probably the lesser of these two artists but without a doubt one of the biggest sounds out there. Its like a marvelous melange of electro, pop, funk, jazz and RnB. I am just in love with their stuff at the minute.

The Invisible - London Girl

Following on is the enigmatic La Roux, whom I first discovered on the Kitsune Maison volumes with their track 'Quicksand' remixed by the electro-magicians Autokratz. Listening to their stuff unremixed sounds a little snoozy Sunday waltz through the shores of elctropop-ville with a bottle of cognac and some valium. I thought that 'Quicksand' without Autokratz shifting the vocals and composition around was a little flat, but I have been reasonably impressed with her other stuff suck as the brilliant tune 'Bulletproof'. La Roux seems to be the bookies favourite at the moment, and in most years it tends to go to the more renowned artists (Elbow, Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons.) So potentially Kasabian could steal in here. However there is nothing to suggest an unlikely winner from Speech Debelle or Sweet Billy Pilgrim.

So there we go. My heart wants it to be The Invisible - purely just so they get some short-lived recognition (although, I would far want them to stay a bit esoteric) whereas La Roux is the more natural choice. I am however, completely biased towards my preference to electro music however.

I'm loving this band at the minute. They are an electro-pop band from Russia and are probably going to be cutting it up on dancefloors and radio stations very soon. They are called Telsa Boy and you should probably check them out.

Spirit of the Night




Electric Lady



Why is the 80's electro-funk type stuff so popular these days? Still, you gotta love it! *dances*

As always, I'm slow to blog about these things, but quite frankly I hate to write my feelings on the matter before the dust has settled and I get a more clearer view of things.

The internet has practically swelled at the news of Michael Jackson's early death. Google is reporting 40% of its hits are MJ related, whilst on youtube, the majority of Michael Jackson videos (both anarchic and loving tributes) have seen an explosion in the number of views.

Also with Jackson's untimely death, the relevance of twitter has yet again provided an interesting focal point for the media. It was estimated as the news broke, around 100,000 tweets per hour about the death were published. Last week the explosive political situation in Iran provided such western media outlets with a rich source of first-hand information from local Iranians, as well allowing the Iranians themselves to be able to access unrestricted information from behind Iran's politically electronic firewall. It was probably the first major event where Twitter has become a major source for the media to scour for both information of the riots as well portraying the interactivity of the young Iranians.

It is this reporting of Twitter's tweets in the midst of Jackson's death that has completely replaced the standard 'vox populi' (the general opinion of the general public.) For the first time ever, one does not need to go out onto the streets, camera in tow, and seek out individuals to thrust a microphone into. The internet and twitter and has now proven a more able and actually most cost effective way of gauging public sentiment and reporting information. Quotes can be used ad-verbatim from the thoughts and feelings from anyone in the world on any emotional cataclysmic event such as this. Sky News were the prime purveyors of this 'nouvelle vague' of media journalism by listing the 'tweets' of celebrities' updates when the news broke.

It was the latter news broadcaster who erroneously reported British Foreign Secretary David Miliband's message on twitter - which turned out to be false, as Mr. Miliband does not have a twitter account. A hasty backtrack after some clarification from other news outlets then ensued. So despite the modern technological revival of journalism in the shape of twitter, there are clearly some faults in this system.

However sifting through these hundreds of 'tweets' regarding Jackson's death is like reading an corpus of human suffering and misery. But more so on a wider-scale. Hollywood C-listers and random no-mark celebrities champing at the bit to pronounce their 'grief' as it turns up on all media outlets. It seems as if Michael Jackson's death could well be the turning point for all future events that requires mass opinion in so very little time upon when the story breaks.

My 'tweet' was not poetic or gushy but merely one of shock. I think for most people, it came as a shock given the star's pop cultural relevancy, anything else is tautological emotion for the sake of respite. Growing up in the UK and even small spells abroad during the 80's and 90's - Michael Jackson's music and persona were known everywhere by everyone. I think he is held in such esteem that his aurora went far and beyond that of most state figures.


Jackon's music was quite earth-shattering at the time, and it was his attention to the music video that elevated him beyond other recording artists. Without a doubt Thriller - which has become an iconic symbol of the modern pop video, remains one of my favourite music songs of all time. It is a song that is often parodied, honoured and ridiculed but still remains a symbol of the early days of "pop video operas" that Jackson helped to create.

As one soars so greatly, the ascent down is often great too. One cannot fly so high and hope to achieve this level of success. The stories of his morbid personal life, are probably no more lurid than that of most music celebrities today. It is however, sadly the state most people will remember Jackson, in that post-Thriller era where the physical and emotional changes began to haunt the man and his beloved fan-base. Jackson's legacy as a ground-breaking music artist would soon be whitewashed by some, due in part to the allegations surrounding the child molestation charges. It was these final days, during these infamous trials and accusations that began to take the final toll on Jackson's physical and emotional health. It appears that the people who bought into Jackson's music, his bizarre social upbringings and moral takes on the world were the ones who were first ones to recoil backwards and spring upwards whenever his name was sounded out.

Although I would count myself as a fan of Jackson's work, I see myself highly cynical of his personal life. So much money squandered through lifestyle of the boy that never grew up. It seemed all too much horribly pastiche of Hollywood, especially during his final few years on this planet. It is however undoubtedly wrong of me to criticise a dead man's actions during the time he was alive without knowing all of the murky facts. I, just like the rest of the vengeful critics of his lifestyle - should simply judge the man by his musical ability and talent. Of which there was plenty.

At the moment, I am currently absorbed into a collaboration of two of the most enigmatic and often visually spasmodic artists, Fizzy Eye productions - who are responsible for an absolute ton of material (such as sketches on Monkey Dust and advertisements for the Honda Jazz..) together with the beautiful electronica of Wagon Christ (aka: British DJ Luke Vilbert.)

'Sorry I make you lush' which came out on the Ninja Tune label way back in 2004 is probably one of my favourite underrated albums within that genre and most definitely one of the better CD's to bear the label Ninja Tune.

Sit back, listen and enjoy with a nice coffee and a good feeling of the world...

Copy of the email I sent yesterday afternoon:

Guys, I’m sick of getting asked of what tunes I played, so here is some of the playlist from Monday night’s bash – I can’t remember the exact order, but I’ll try and make it as full and accurate as soon as possible.

These were the Japanese ones I played that seem to be garnishing the most queries in my mail box. Some of the remixes were done by various people off the net and I have no idea what they are called or who to credit them to.

Neon Genesis Evangelion OP – remix
Lucky Star OP - remix
Airman ga Taosenai – team nekokan
Tori no Uta – trance remix
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya – “Hare Hare Yukai” vs “God Knows”
Kigurumi – Kurutto Mawatte Ikkaiten (remix)
Figu@Carnival – “Gacha Gacha” Cu-te (remix)
FictionJunction YUUKA – “Hitomi no kakera”
Utada Hikaru - “For You” vs Breakbot - “Stereo Provolone”
Ayumi Hamasaki – Boys and Girls remix
Ayumi Hamasaki – Greatful Days (Para-One dub remix)
Eri Nobuchika - “Voice.” vs Strider – “Tokyo Loading”
Shinichi Osawa – “Ami nyuu ku tsu” (Simian Remix)
Ayuse Kozue – “Kimi no yasashisa” (remix)
Emi Hinouchi – “Summer Time Love” (deckstream remix)
Teriyaki Boyz feat. Emi Hinouchi – “Paradise Baby”
Eri Nobuchika – Sing a Song
Shinichi Osawa – Electro 411 (Lies in Disguise remix) vs Touhou Project
Touhou Project – Marisa wa taihen na mono wo nusundeikimashita
Utada Hikaru – Colors (DJ Ericz remix)
Omodaka – Kokoriko Bushi vs Cantana no 147

I hope I've not missed any out!

Does Omodaka get any better? Of course it fucking does! This is Kokirko Bushi...





Also, is it me or is Annie Mac really annoying? Finally to round off tonight's Japanese chiptune collection this is　Fortunate 1 Mark...

If you speak German you'll love this song. If you don't you can enjoy the video and killer beat...




Although my German is now scheisse. I love the song, plus the video. The lyrics are very powerful. It talks about war it the midst of people just going about an ordinary day. The title of the song roughly means "On days such as this"

I should also add that unlike most people studying Japanese, I don't have the same passion for it as I do German, Russian and Cold War history. I'm weird in that I prefer these cultures and histories than that of Japan. The history of the Cold War is so much more interesting than the Tokugawa shogunate.

Guess I should start becoming one of the regular folk now I'm doing Japanese eh?