An explosion in a wig factory, and five other songs you may have missed

*MUTED FANFARE* This week's new music round-up is a bit of a mixed bag - which presumably means we're heading headfirst into the summer song drought. Nonetheless, there are a few sparkling gems knocking about if you're prepared to look hard enough. And these are they.

1) Breach - Jack
The most bonkers video of the week is this wig-tastic clip from Breach, aka UK house music producer Ben Westbeech. Everything in the video is made out of hair, from the furniture to the dancer who looks like, but probably isn't, Lady Gaga. The song's not bad either - a minimalist, repetitive, but exceedingly catchy, club track.




2) Liz - U Over Them
This is my favourite new track of the week. Liz is an singer from Tarzana, California, whose style harks back to the late 90s robo-R&B of Brandy and Aaliyah. In fact, she sounds so much like Aaliyah, I had to pinch myself. As if to reinforce those millennial reference points, her biggest social media presence is on MySpace. One to watch.





3) Chvrches - The Mother We Share (live)
If Chvrches were suffering nerves on their US television debut they certainly didn't show. This is more down to Lauren's awesome vocals than the band's Chris Lowe double act (note to accountants: one Chris Lowe is usually enough). NB: Spot the radio edit - "fucks up" becomes "stuffs up". Controversial.




4) M.I.A. - Bring The Noize
Never has a song title been more appropriate. This is what happens when you load up a sampler with 82 random noises and push it down the stairs. Invigorating and rubbish all at once.





5) Foals - Bad Habit
I interviewed Yannis Philippakis yesterday for a BBC Glastonbury thing. "Do you get a rider," I asked. "OF COURSE I get a rider," he replied, indignantly. And what's on it? "Oh, just scotch. Lots and lots of scotch".

I have sneaking suspicion Foals' set is going to be one of the festival's unexpected highlights. The band have just come back from a four-month tour of the US, leaner, hungrier, and ready for a home crowd. Their new single is bound to be on the setlist - but it'll be the almighty Inhaler that really sets things off...




6) Alex Metric & Jacques Lu Cont feat Malin off Niki & The Dove – Safe With You
That band name needs a bit of work, but this is a gorgeous and surprisingly soulful slab of Euro House music. A word of warning, though: No matter how great the singer's boyfriend is, I'm not sure it's wise to promise "I'd break my back for you". Just a thought.

That's your lot for now... As ever, send any more tips and suggestions to editor@discopop.co.uk. Cheers!

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DOOOOVES IIIIIN SPAAAAAACE!!!

Two new videos came out today. One is by Swedish newcomers Niki And The Dove, the other is a lyric video by surprisingly resilient girl group The Saturdays. Each single has made a brave effort to scale the craggy peak of the great mountain we call pop. Here is how they fared.

As you can see, the poor old The Saturdays are stuck on the foothills. In this respect, they are very much the five Heidis of generic chart music. Except they can't even claim that title properly, because Heidi from the Sugababes is the official Heidi of generic chart music. Oh dear.

Niki and the Dove, on the other hand, make a much better ascent. This is partly because they have forsaken high heels and chosen adequate climbing equipment [subs - please put joke about crampons here]. It is also because their video is a thrilling journey into space, like the trailer for Prometheus but with 0.00003% of the budget.

See for yourself.


Niki and the Dove - Tomorrow



The Saturdays - 30 Days


(This is probably the most poorly-thought-through blog post I've ever written. And that's saying something. Time for the weekend, I think.)

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Fantastic Mr Fox (and a Dove)

Swedish pop duo Niki and the Dove are what you get when you force the entire Top 40 through a sausage grinder and try to make a Kylie song out of the minced meat. More simply: Niki and the Dove are musical nutjobs of the best possible variety.

Their proper debut single DJ Ease My Mind is out later in the month, of which more later. First up, let's take a look at the video for their free EP download The Fox. The animated clip was created by WINTR, whose website says this: "We unite creative, technical, strategic disciplines to deliver culturally activated digital experiences".

They sound like a bunch of nitwits, but you'll probably forgive them once you've watched this.

Niki & The Dove - The Fox


So, what exactly are Niki and the Dove? Here's what we know so far.

:: Nike and the Dove are really Malin Dahlström and Gustaf Karlöf.

:: They think war is "shit".

:: Their album was written in Northern Sweden "with the forest and mountains surrounding us".

:: "We're inspired by female half-goddesses, bubbles and trancey moves," says Malin.

:: She also notes: "We have the heritage of ABBA".

:: They really, really like afternoon tea.



Isn't that cute?

Now, you might be asking yourself why a superlative pop band of this nature has not featured on the blog before. The answer is quite simple: I didn't really get it until last weekend. Then, as is often the case, I heard them on the radio and suddenly everything clicked *click* like the Fonz's fingers.

So don't dismiss DJ Ease My Mind if it doesn't immediately grab you by the balls and shout "I am a very good pop song" at your faceholes. It's an acquired taste, like Tequila, with almost exactly the same after-effects.

Niki & The Dove - DJ Ease My Mind

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Roundup: A ragtag collection of videos and songs from the last seven days

As often happens, Friday has come around and there's a ton of new music that didn't quite warrant its own blog post this week, but which doesn't deserve being consigned to the dumper either.

So here, basically, are six tracks I don't hate.

1) Madeon - Pop Culture (live mashup)

This is mind-boggling. French DJ Madeon creates an entirely new song out of bits of 39 other songs. Oh, and he does it live, playing the samples in off a 64-button Novation Sample Pad. There are bits of Kylie, Jacko, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Daft Punk in there... Astonishing work.

2) Pixie Lott - All About Tonight

Multimedia teen brand Pixie Lott is back with a new single All About Tonight, which roughly translates as *yawn* All About Going To The Club. (I keep meaning to ask - why is there only one club?). This isn't the barnstorming comeback Pixie needed to reinvigorate her see-saw chart career... but it's better than, say, anything Jason Derulo has ever written. And by 'written', I of course mean 'stolen'.

The video is mainly notable for the hilarious legs akimbo dance routine (see above). Pixie Lott has long legs, in case wall-to-wall tabloid coverage had failed to make you aware of this fact.

3) Sufjan Stevens - Get Real, Get Right

*6 Music face* Sufjan Stevens is a hugely talented artist given to massive bouts of creativity and self-indulgence. His new album, The Age Of Adz, contains delicate moments of ephemeral beauty and a bunch of songs that waffle on for 10 minutes about absolutely fuck all. This is one of the former - and it comes with a mesmerising stop-motion video, which Sufjan directed all on his own, despite previously suffering a nervous breakdown during Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox.

4) DJ Earworm - Party On The Floor

Another one of DJ Earworm's semi-annual mash-ups for Capital FM. He's kind of hamstrung by the alarming lack of decent pop music this year, but the juxtaposition of LMFAO and Katy B is sublime.

5) Niki And The Dove - Gentle Roar

Unbelievably, people are still persisting with the whole "[female name] and the [noun]" concept. Latest off the block are Niki And The Dove, a Swedish duo signed to the ultra-hip Subpop label. Subverting the "Alice And The Cheese Grater" subgenre, they make earthy, pagan click-pop, which sounds like Florence Welch swallowing Radiohead. Very classy.

Gentle Roar by subpop

6) Nicola Roberts being hit on the head with a beach ball

As discovered by the incomparable Robot Pigeon blog, here is Nicola Roberts being hit on the head with a beach ball (scroll through to 2'40"). Nice work, everyone.

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