Monsta, Mash and four more songs you may have missed

Here we go again: Six songs that didn't fit anywhere else on the blog this week, served up in one healthy portion. Feast your ears below.

1) Monsta - Messiah
Gospel + Dubstep = Gobstep.



2) Kelly Rowland - Dirty Laundry
This is one of the bravest songs in recent memory, in which Kelly lays bare several years of emotional abuse (and jealousy and rage and sadness) at the hands of an ex-boyfriend. Not an easy listen - but an essential one.





3) 3) Holy Ghost! - Dumb Disco Ideas
Eight minutes! Vocoders! Syndrum solos! More cowbell!



4) Lissie - Shameless
I saw Lissie play her comeback show at Dingwalls in Camden last week. She was on fire, all hair and spit, despite a few vocal troubles. "I may have to squeak myself through the set," she cringed. A couple of her new songs - Habit, Shroud and I Don't Want To Go To Work - sounded incredible. But we have to wait 'til September (SEPTEMBER!) to hear the album. What a colossal tease. In the meantime, here's the video for the first single, Shameless.





5) Lulu James - Sweetest Thing (live on Jools)
Watch it, love, you'll have someone's eye out with those shoulder pads.



6) Gerard i2 - Mash 'Em
He's from Northern Ireland and he's doing a song about potatoes!!

What's that? Really? What a shame.

So, apparently, Strabane-born Gerard "i2" McDaid isn't preparing a Shepherd's Pie when he says "I'll mash them all". Never mind - his song is still a tasty recipe: equal parts Cypress Hill shuffle and menacing string crescendos. Bake it at gas mark five for 30 minutes, and you get Plan B covered by Ian Paisley.

And that's your lot. See you on the other side of the weekend.

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Holy Guacamole, it's Holy Ghost

You may remember Holy Ghost from that song that sounded like LCD Soundsystem and that other song that sounded like LCD Soundsystem. Well, here they are with their first new material in over year and guess what it sounds like? Nana Mouskouri.

Oh, alright. I am pulling your legs off. But, hey, if James Murphy is going to take all his toys home and cry like a baby, I'm happy these guys are around to keep the fun going. Their new record is called It Gets Dark and, appropriately enough, it heralds a more ominous tone in the Brooklyn duo's music. There's even a hint of Joy Division in the lonely twang of those guitars.

Best moment: "A, B, C, D / You won't use that school degree".
Other best moment: The bit where it sounds like LCD Soundsystem.



Head over to DFA's webstore to pre-order on the MP3 or the 12 inch, depending on your format preferences and wallet size.

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Holy Ghost's family album

Apparently the rest of the world has decided to ignore Holy Ghost on the grounds that they are too similar to LCD Soundsystem, while missing the point that they are better than LCD Soundsystem because they don't spend entire albums grumbling about being middle-aged and having osteoporosis.

Well, I applaud Holy Ghost for their carefree brand of dance-funk. Striding around in your disco slacks is 100% preferable to slouching on the sofa watching repeats of The Great British Bake Off, wondering where the years have gone.

Not that Holy Ghost are immune to sentimentality. Case in point: The video for their new single Hold My Breath. It's stitched together from personal photos and videos of the band grwoing up together, after they first met at elementary school.

“There were no trepidations about exposing our personal lives,” says singer Alex Frankel. “We literally handed over the archives in all their humiliating and sentimental glory.”

Give them 10 years and they'll be writing a song about rheumatoid arthritis and why they should bring back conscription "to teach the kids some discipline". Until then, enjoy...

Holy Ghost! - Hold My Breath

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Holy Ghost! break out the dadrock

Holy Ghost! are the less demanding, less pretentious LCD Soundsystem. That means crisp, strutting disco funk with proper melodies in the bits where James Murphy would have recorded another shouty megaphone rant about his mid-life crisis.

Their latest single, Wait & See, is probably their weakest so far. But, given that previous releases include the almighty Static On The Wire and Do It Again, that's not a major criticism.

The video is properly brilliant, though: Nick Millhiser and Alex Frankel (for they are the spectral duo in question) are replaced by their dads. Misters Millhiser and Frankel Snr are shown recording the song, signing autographs and rifling through creates of vinyl. They look like they're having a blast.

Holy Ghost - Wait & See
[Insert your own "fathers, sons and Holy Ghost!" pun here]

Holy Ghost! also have an album. It is excellent. Particularly in the sun, with a charred burger in one hand and a sparkly gingermint cocktail in the other (remind me to give you a recipe for that one day - it's amazing). The album is imaginatively called Holy Ghost! and you can purchase it on Amazon.

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Free download from the Holy Ghost

Who says the devil gets all the best tunes? New York disco punk duo Holy Ghost! have been floating around for the last couple of years doing remixes for the likes of Phoenix, MGMT and Cut Copy. Last summer, they put out an excellent EP which featured the following nugget of new-wave magnificence.

Holy Ghost! - Static On The Wire


If you think Static On The Wire sounds like a more melodic LCD Soundsystem, it's no coincidence. LCD's main man James Murphy produced it, and he's releasing Holy Ghost's debut album on his DFA label. Details are scant at the moment, but we do know the CD's got vocals from former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald and the title track sounds like this:

Holy Ghost - Do It Again by DFA Records


Do It Again (the album) isn't out til April, but you can download Do It Again (the song) in exchange for an email address on the band's official website. Phantasmic.

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